Kentucky Association For Medical Instrumentation

The Kentucky Association for Medical Instrumentation (KAMI), founded in March 2010, is one such association. James Helton, BMET II, is president of KAMI. He says biomed advocate Pat Lynch, who has helped start several associations, was instrumental in KAMI’s formation. “Pat Lynch contacted multiple members of clinical engineering departments throughout Kentucky to gauge interest in starting an association in Kentucky, and then had an exploratory meeting to establish interest,” Helton says. “We then had our first meeting on March 16, 2010, at which time we formally voted on our by-laws and elected our first board of directors.”Today, KAMI has nearly 170 active members. Meetings are held quarterly in various locations. goal is to provide, on a smaller scale at each of our meetings, the same type of value that people typically expect from attending a large symposium.In the future, the association may record meetings and put the videos on an archive website for members who are too far away to attend. For now, the quarterly meetings are held in cities like Lexington and Erlanger and may expand to London, Owensboro and Louisville.In addition to Helton and Geddes, the organization’s officers include treasurer Mike Coats, membership secretary Dan Clark and recording secretary Bill Barley.The group has a promotion committee and an education committee. “The education committee’s focus is  normally scheduled membership meetings where the networking and the education, is going to focus more on the fun side of things… to give membership the opportunity to get together and network, but have the whole family and just have a lot of fun.”The organization has a vendor booth at quarterly meetings. It provides for a more casual atmosphere, allowing meeting attendees to visit with the vendor at their leisure.