{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T18:02:41Z","timestamp":1781028161692,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":19,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1780963200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The measurement of health indicators that enable the estimation of a system\u2019s capacity to provide adequate patient care constitutes a highly relevant factor in the evaluation of healthcare systems. Traditionally, these indicators include variables such as physician density, nursing staff, and other human resources; however, a critical component that often receives less attention is the capacity of healthcare institutions to sustain high-quality infrastructure and medical technology, which are essential to ensuring the continuity, safety, and efficiency of healthcare services. In this context, an important complementary metric would be the density of biomedical engineers within hospital settings, as these professionals are required to design, evaluate, regulate, acquire, maintain, and manage medical technologies and healthcare infrastructure. Current WHO metrics measure biomedical engineer density per 10,000 inhabitants, not reflecting their direct relationship with medical devices and hospital infrastructure.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      To develop a novel biomedical engineer density indicator per hospital beds (\n                      <jats:italic>\u03c1BEhb<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) that relates workforce capacity to medical devices rather than general population, and to evaluate its applicability within the Mexican healthcare system.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The\n                      <jats:italic>\u03c1BEhb<\/jats:italic>\n                      calculates the ratio between biomedical engineers providing professional services (internal or mixed staff) and available hospital beds for a given year. The methodological framework follows PAHO\/WHO \u2018Health Indicators\u2019 guidelines. Data from the Mexican healthcare system (2017\u20132022) were analyzed alongside international benchmarks.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The Mexican healthcare system showed generally positive\n                      <jats:italic>\u03c1BEhb<\/jats:italic>\n                      trends from 2017 to 2022, with a \u22120.53% decrease (2017\u22122018) and a notable 14.41% increase (2020\u22122021) coinciding with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. While Mexico's absolute number of biomedical engineers is comparable to the USA,\n                      <jats:italic>\u03c1BEhb<\/jats:italic>\n                      analysis reveals a dual structural deficit \u2014 insufficient hospital beds and inadequate biomedical engineering workforce \u2014 when adjusted for population size and international standards.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec005\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The\n                      <jats:italic>\u03c1BEhb<\/jats:italic>\n                      indicator exposes Mexico's dual deficit in hospital beds and biomedical engineers relative to population needs. This metric provides a more relevant measure for assessing medical device management capacity and healthcare quality than traditional population-based indicators.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0350988","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T17:23:22Z","timestamp":1781025802000},"page":"e0350988","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Biomedical engineer density per hospital bed: A medical device quality indicator for Mexican Healthcare System"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8492-9519","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Luis G.","family":"Ayala","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nadezhda Aguilar","family":"Blas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Norma Patricia","family":"Navor Galeana","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0350988.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"870","DOI":"10.30574\/ijsra.2024.11.1.0139","article-title":"Biomedical engineering advances: A review of innovations in healthcare and patient outcomes","volume":"11","author":"A Evangel Chinyere","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int J Sci Res Arch"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref002","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Human resources for medical devices: The role of biomedical engineers. 2017. https:\/\/iris.who.int\/handle\/10665\/255261"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref003","unstructured":"World Health Organization. Medical devices: Biomedical engineers density (per 10,000 population). WHO Global Health Observatory. https:\/\/www.who.int\/data\/gho\/indicator-metadata-registry\/imr-details\/4584 2025."},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref004","article-title":"Biomedical engineers density indicator per hospital beds","author":"L Ayala","year":"2024","journal-title":"medRxiv"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref005","author":"OECD","year":"2023","journal-title":"Health at a glance 2023: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref006","volume-title":"OECD health statistics 2025","author":"OECD","year":"2025"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref007","volume-title":"PAHO strategic plan 2020-2025 \u201cEquity at the heart of health\u201d - Compendium of impact indicators","author":"Pan American Health Organization.","year":"2020"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref008","unstructured":"Pan American Health Organization. PAHO strategic plan 2020-2025 \u201cEquity at the heart of health\u201d - Compendium of outcome indicators. 2020. https:\/\/www.paho.org\/en\/documents\/paho-strategic-plan-2020-2025-equity-heart-health-compendium-outcome-indicators"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref009","unstructured":"WHO. Number of biomedical engineers. World Health Organization (WHO). https:\/\/www.who.int\/data\/gho\/data\/indicators\/indicator-details\/GHO\/number-of-biomedical-engineers 2019. Accessed 2024 August 2."},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref010","unstructured":"World Bank. World Bank Open Data. 2011. 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Hospital Beds per 1,000 Population by Ownership Type. https:\/\/www.kff.org\/other\/state-indicator\/beds-by-ownership\/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D#notes 2023. Accessed 2024 August 21."},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref017","unstructured":"Census Bureau US. 2020 Census Apportionment Results. https:\/\/www.census.gov\/data\/tables\/2020\/dec\/2020-apportionment-data.html 2021. Accessed 2024 August 21."},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref018","author":"U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics","year":"2023"},{"key":"pone.0350988.ref019","author":"OECD","year":"2019","journal-title":"Health at a Glance 2019 OECD Indicators. OECD"}],"container-title":["PLOS One"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0350988","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]],"date-time":"2026-06-09T17:23:27Z","timestamp":1781025807000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0350988"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Nicolas","family":"Padilla-Raygoza","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]]},"references-count":19,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0350988","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,9]]}}}