The North Carolina Biomedical Association originated in the late 1970’s when a group of BMETs were invited to meet at the Area Health Education Center in the Wake County Medical Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. This original group of individuals established the foundations and guiding principles, which have made the North Carolina Biomedical Association the superlative organization that it is today. The By-Laws formulated by this group established the principal objective of advancing the development of personnel involved in the selection, operation, repair and support of biomedical instrumentation of Health Care Institutions.
We have made available a copy of the first NCBA Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 1, dated June 12, 1981. It has been scanned as a pdf file and the size is 413K. Click Here to open the pdf file.
The evening of November 5, 1980 was an historic time for the N.C.B.A. After months of hard work and planning, the North Carolina Biomedical Association elected it’s first Board of Directors. Out of this group of ten dedicated individuals came the Association’s officers:
| President: | Patrick K. Lynch, CBET Carolinas Hospital Engineering Support Services (CHESS) Charlotte Memorial Hospital, Charlotte, NC |
| Vice President: | W. Glenn Scales, CBET Biomedical Equipment Rental & Sales, Inc. |
| Secretary: | Wes Cormac Moore Memorial Hospital, Pinehurst, NC |
| Treasurer: | Eddy G. Whisnant Physio Control Corp., Raleigh, NC |
| Directors: | Jim Downing Wilson Memorial Hospital, Wilson, NC Frank Forrest, CBET Memorial Hospital of Alamance County, Burlington, NC Dave Curry Grace Hospital, Morganton, NC Dr. J.C. Boone Stanly Technical College, Albemarle, NC Clint Crites, CBET Carolinas Hospital Engineering Support Services (CHESS) N.C. Baptist Hospital, Winston-Salem, NC Bob Strickland, R.H.Ed. Area Health Education Center, Raleigh, NC |
During the next six months, all the members of the Board of Directors were following up on various assigned tasks associated with further developing this newly established organization. On June 21, 1981 the first N.C.B. A. Newsletter was published. Membership packets, including the recently adopted By-Laws, were distributed to the 43 members of the N.C.B.A. Membership certificates were selected and printed, a logo design was selected and lapel pins were designed and ordered.
Although the organization was still in a ³start-up phase², the educational needs of the membership were still the primary focus. Even though the N.C.B.A. did not quite exactly exist at this point, the founding members had already put on two annual symposiums. The Third Annual Symposium was scheduled for November 12 & 13, 1981 at the Jane S. McKimmon Center on the North Carolina State University campus. Topics presented at this Symposium included Blood Pressure Monitoring, Infusion Pumps & Controllers and P.M. / Safety Documentation.
As a part of the Third Annual Symposium, Board of Directors elections were held and a fresh crop of Directors were selected for two year terms. The original terms were staggered so that half of the Board’s term of office would expire each year. Newly elected members of the Board of Directors were Lane Rushing, Richard Zang, Virgil Smoot and Dale Crum. This process of a staggered Board rotation was one of the original founding doctrines of the N.C.B.A. Soon thereafter, Lane Rushing accepted a job with Physio Control and had to move to Washington, DC. Paul Stroud, CBET at Wake Medical Center in Raleigh was appointed to replace Lane.
On August 10, 1981, the Department of Secretary of State of the State of North Carolina issued the Articles of Incorporation to the N.C.B.A. thanks to the considerable efforts of Frank Forrest and his wife, Nancy. This was the first step in the process of establishing the N.C.B.A. as a non-profit corporation, legally recognized by the State of North Carolina. One of the more historic events in the history of the North Carolina Biomedical Association occurred on Thursday, October 14, 1982 at the Raleigh Hilton Hotel. The Fourth Annual Symposium saw the introduction of the Pig Pickin’. This most popular of all N.C.B.A. events was sponsored by Andover Medical and Dave Curry and Clint Crites served as the chefs for this inaugural event. By this time the N.C.B.A. membership had grown to almost 200 and the Annual Symposiums were ³the² event for BMETs in North Carolina.
Each year throughout the long history of the North Carolina Biomedical Association, people come and go and a review of the history of the NCBA shows a long and dedicated commitment from within the membership to furthering the goals established back in 1979. Literally hundreds of individuals, hospitals and corporations have worked behind the scenes to help the N.C.B.A. become what it is today ‹ the finest regional organization representing the interests of Biomedical Equipment Technicians and Clinical Engineers.