And not just of this blog, either.
Let's back up a moment, shall we? In 2007 Fluke Biomedical commissioned by company to write a text book on testing and maintaining medical equipment. It's not as odd as it seems. First, I work for a university. Second, prior to being purchased by Fluke and moved to Nevada, Biotek was located in Winooski and our companies had a close working relationship.
There aren't a whole lot of text books for the biomedical equipment technician and there certainly are not a lot of field guides for maintenance programs. Fluke decided that they wanted a text book, geared toward using Fluke test equipment, of course, to use as part of their educational materials. It's kind of like when you get a recipe out of a magazine and it say to use 2 cups of Swanson chicken broth. In reality, any chicken broth will work for the recipe, but the recipe promotes Swanson chicken broth. That's kind of what my text book is like. The sample equipment used is all Fluke equipment.
Fluke will be using the book in its non-US markets; places that don't currently have an established set of regulations governing medical equipment. I think that's a good thing. The book was written with an eye towards US regulations (why we have them and why they are important) and also practicality. Really, it was to make people understand what they're trying to test for and how to go about it. The book has been translated into Spanish for the South American market and also into Chinese. There were also talks of doing translations into Japanese and a handful of the Arabic languages.
I actually finished writing in the fall of 2007. I was very proud that I made every one of my deadlines. Fluke had originally planned on publishing in December 2007. I'm not sure why there was so long of a delay.
Now I finally have a copy of Medical Equipment Quality Assurance: Inspection Program Development and Procedures. Not exactly the great American novel, but I'll run with it. I'm an author. And not just any author, but an international author.
2 comments:
Congratulations! I'm in the middle of creating documentation for work at the moment, but it won't be published. I think it's especially impressive that you've been translated. It also gives me a totally valid opportunity to use one of my favorite quotes, which nobody knows is one of my favorite quotes because I so rarely have an opportunity to use it. From "The World According to Garp":
"Nobody is reading my novel. And I'm starting my second, and the same nobodys are going to line up not to read that one, too. And I've just read that my mother's book has been translated into Apache. Apache, Helen. Not even Shakespeare or Dickens has been translated into Apache."
It's very cool. The only thing I'm kind of bummed about is that of the 3 authors listed, my name appears last. Stupid name coming at the end of the alphabet.
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