Category: Published

My profession was clinical engineering, overseeing the application of medical technology in New York City hospitals. For many years I photograph what I cared about. My education in photography began about age 17, and took place in a small darkroom, a closet under the stairs leading to the basement of the house I grew up… Continue reading New York Shadow: Behind the Scenes

These are transcriptions from recorded interviews that took place in1994. At the time, a book of job-related interviews did not attract much attention, that is, besides Studs Terkel’s Working. Interviewing a range of different kinds of people was an amazing experience. For me, it was an excuse to meet someone very interesting and to ask… Continue reading Into It: Interviews With Work

I don’t need to tell you that today, everything is a business. My career in healthcare was no exception, and that is why oversight, and understanding what is behind that process, is more important than ever. Hospital environments, including risk management, are multifaceted and fraught with pitfalls: anyone involved in healthcare and saying otherwise is… Continue reading BMET and Clinical Engineer: Healthcare Worker

In the early 1970’s New York City was beginning a slide into disrepair that would peak in the late 1970’s. Even as tenants had begun moving into the new World Trade Center complex, several of the boroughs were losing populations, arsonists torched buildings for the insurance, graffiti was everywhere, crime was up, and the city… Continue reading The Feast Of San Gennaro, Little Italy, New York, 1971: A Photographic Essay: The People, Food, Activities

The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) publishes Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology (BI&T) a bimonthly peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the developers, managers, and users of medical instrumentation and technology. Proposed: A Standard Clinical Engineering Review Procedure Alan Pakaln Journal: Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology Biomed Instrum Technol (2006) 40 (4): 315–318. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2345/i0899-8205-40-4-315.1 Published: 01 July 2006 The Three Critical… Continue reading Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology

Article I wrote proposed creating a Library Community Network. PDF of article

An article I wrote about my experiences visiting the Ganas community in Staten Island. Click here for a pdf of article.