Health care employment goes beyond direct patient care. There is also demand for technicians to repair medical equipment. Patients and healthcare providers depend on proper functioning of sophisticated equipment. Students in the biomedical service technician: clinical engineering program learn how to maintain and repair everything from medical imaging equipment wheelchairs, and heart monitors. Health care, the largest industry in the country, employs more than 14 million people, and figures continue to mount. From small-town private practices to mammoth inner-city hospitals, health care workers are in high demand. The patients in those practices and hospitals depend not only on the expertise of doctors and nurses but on the proper functioning of sophisticated biomedical equipment. The people responsible for repairing and maintaining these highly specialized machines and instruments such as defibrillators, heart monitors, electric wheelchairs, and medical imaging equipment (x-rays, CAT scanners, and ultrasound equipment), are biomedical service technicians. They inspect and install equipment used by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers for researching, monitoring, diagnosing, and treating illnesses and disorders. They also repair, calibrate, and safety test the equipment to ensure proper function and safety for both the operator and the patient.