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The differences between biomedical engineers and biomedical engineering technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a biomedical engineer has an average salary of $79,436, which is higher than the $59,711 average annual salary of a biomedical engineering technician.
The top three skills for a biomedical engineer include patients, medical devices and biomedical equipment. The most important skills for a biomedical engineering technician are medical equipment, biomedical equipment, and customer service.
| Biomedical Engineer | Biomedical Engineering Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $79,436 | $59,711 |
| Hourly rate | $38.19 | $28.71 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 17% |
| Number of jobs | 33,662 | 79,647 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 65% | Associate Degree, 53% |
| Average age | 38 | 45 |
| Years of experience | 2 | - |
As a biomedical engineer, it's their main job responsibility to innovate advances that can improve human health care in all aspects. They analyze and create solutions to certain problems with biology and medicine to improve the effectiveness and quality of patient care. They also do complex tasks that include installing, repairing, maintaining, or providing technical support for biomedical equipment. Moreover, checking safety evaluation, efficiency, and effectiveness of biomedical equipment is also part of their job responsibilities.
A biomedical engineering technician is an individual who is responsible for repairing and maintaining medical equipment used in hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors' offices. By using a variety of tools and computer applications, biomedical engineering technicians must perform tasks such as preventive maintenance, installations and calibrate equipment, and repair electronic medical devices. They must keep computerized service logs and report issues to their supervisors to ensure that equipment is maintained according to their compliance standards. Biomedical engineering technicians should assist medical staff members on how to operate medical equipment properly.
Biomedical engineers and biomedical engineering technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Biomedical Engineer | Biomedical Engineering Technician | |
| Average salary | $79,436 | $59,711 |
| Salary range | Between $57,000 And $108,000 | Between $43,000 And $81,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | California | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Cornerstone Research | PeaceHealth |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a biomedical engineer and a biomedical engineering technician in terms of educational background:
| Biomedical Engineer | Biomedical Engineering Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 65% | Associate Degree, 53% |
| Most common major | Biomedical Engineering | Electrical Engineering |
| Most common college | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Pennsylvania State University |
Here are the differences between biomedical engineers' and biomedical engineering technicians' demographics:
| Biomedical Engineer | Biomedical Engineering Technician | |
| Average age | 38 | 45 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 75.0% Female, 25.0% | Male, 80.6% Female, 19.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 5.6% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 10.3% Asian, 20.1% White, 58.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | Black or African American, 9.3% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 8.0% White, 60.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 13% | 6% |