The books and official guidelines I recommend in two fields: medical engineering, and running a medical center. They are for students, colleagues and anyone who wants to go further than the activities on this website, and in each field one is marked as the place to start. I chose each one for its authority and usefulness, in its current edition, and I review the list every year.
About this page: General education, not medical advice, and separate from my own research. The links go to the publishers and official sources, and I earn nothing from them.
Quiet, please: this is a library. The cells built it themselves, one book at a time, from the shelf up. The gold book came back late. It’s leaning on its neighbor, trying to look as if it had never left.
One cell set out to read everything on this list. It read so much that it divided, and divided again, until there were enough cells to become the books themselves. The gold one is leaning on its neighbor: it stayed up all night to finish its chapter.
To a tissue engineer, a shelf is just a scaffold. Give cells something to hold on to and they grow into whatever you need: here, a row of books, from the shelf up. The gold one stands a little apart and leans on its neighbor. There’s always one, and it’s usually the book you need.
One brave cell set out to climb a bookshelf. Whenever it got tired, it divided, so there was always someone fresh to carry on. Row by row they reached the top and became the very books they had climbed. The gold one is leaning on its neighbor to get its breath back.
Before building this shelf, the cells studied real ones very closely. They noted that no two books are the same height, and that the last book on a shelf always leans on its neighbor. They copied every detail, down to the lean. Cells are very thorough.
Two strands: medical equipment, from how it works to how it is managed and maintained; and tissue engineering, with the biomaterials and stem cell research it builds on.
2020
Medical equipment
Jacques S, Christe B. 1st ed. Academic Press, 2020.
A concise introduction to clinical engineering as a profession: what clinical engineers do, the basics of health care technology and how it is managed, safety, IT and facilities. A good first book for students and for anyone joining a hospital’s equipment team; its examples come mostly from the United States.
2019
Medical equipment
Iadanza E, editor. 2nd ed. Academic Press, 2019.
The broadest reference on the profession, in 128 chapters: managing health care technology, servicing devices, assessing new technology, disaster preparedness, human factors, and how clinical engineering is practiced around the world. Not a book to read from cover to cover, but the one to open when a specific question comes up.
2020
Medical equipment
Webster JG, Nimunkar AJ, editors. 5th ed. Wiley, 2020.
The classic engineering textbook on medical instruments: the principles behind how they measure what happens in the body, and how they are designed. For engineering students, and for anyone who wants to understand what is inside the equipment they look after.
2014
Medical equipment
Willson K, Ison K, Tabakov S. CRC Press, 2014.
A whole book on managing medical equipment through its life in a hospital, with risk as the guide: buying and accepting devices, training, maintenance and contracts, investigating incidents, and disposal. Written for managers as well as for engineers and medical physicists.
2011
Medical equipment
WHO Medical device technical series. World Health Organization, 2011.
WHO’s guide to setting up and running a maintenance program: inspections that check that equipment works correctly and safely, and preventive maintenance that extends its life and reduces failures. It is part of WHO’s free Medical device technical series, which also covers inventories, procurement, donations and decommissioning.
2022
Tissue engineering
van Blitterswijk C, De Boer J, editors. 3rd ed. Academic Press, 2022.
A textbook that starts from the fundamentals of tissue engineering and then goes tissue by tissue, from bone to the eye, with clinical case studies. A good first textbook for students and for researchers coming from other fields.
2020
Tissue engineering
Wagner WR, Sakiyama-Elbert SE, Zhang G, Yaszemski MJ, editors. 4th ed. Academic Press, 2020.
The standard textbook on the materials used in medicine, in three parts: the materials themselves, their biology and use in medicine, and a medical product’s path to patients, including regulation and ethics. This edition adds 3D printing, nanotechnology and organs-on-a-chip.
2020
Tissue engineering
Lanza R, Langer R, Vacanti JP, Atala A, editors. 5th ed. Academic Press, 2020.
The field’s most complete reference: how tissues grow and develop, how tissues and organs are designed, and then each organ system in turn, through to regulation and ethics. Best read chapter by chapter; this edition expands the chapters on stem cells and adds 3D bioprinting.
2018
Tissue engineering
Atala A, Lanza R, Mikos AG, Nerem R, editors. 3rd ed. Academic Press, 2018.
A reference on the biology and technology of regeneration: stem cells, how cells and tissues develop, biomaterials, and cell and tissue therapies, with regulation and ethics. For advanced students and researchers who already know the basics.
2025
Tissue engineering
Version 1.2. International Society for Stem Cell Research, 2025.
The international guidelines on the ethics and oversight of stem cell research and of bringing it to patients. They also help readers recognize unproven stem cell treatments; the 2025 update revised the section on embryo models.
Management and operations, quality and patient safety, infection prevention and the care of medical equipment: books and official guidance for the people who run clinics and hospitals.
2022
Management
McLaughlin DB, Olson JR, Sharma L. 4th ed. Health Administration Press, 2022.
How the ideas of operations management, from process improvement and Lean to supply chains and data analytics, apply to health care, with quality and cost always in view. A practical first book for anyone who manages a clinic, a department or a whole center.
2020
Management
Burns L, Bradley E, Weiner B. 7th ed. Cengage, 2020.
A standard textbook on how health care organizations are designed, governed and managed, drawing on organization theory: governance, motivation, conflict, information systems, regulation and payment. It helps you see the organization as a whole, beyond the day’s operations.
2008
Management
International Atomic Energy Agency, 2008.
The IAEA’s guide to setting up a radiotherapy service: its clinical side, medical physics, radiation protection and safety, and the buildings and equipment it needs, including where resources are limited. The IAEA still recommends it, alongside its newer framework for setting up a cancer center (2022).
2016
Quality and safety
Graban M. 3rd ed. Productivity Press, 2016.
How Lean methods, first developed in manufacturing, can make hospital work safer and smoother: better quality, access and staff morale, at lower cost. This edition adds structured problem solving, Lean design and more case studies.
2021
Quality and safety
World Health Organization, 2021.
WHO’s plan for removing avoidable harm from health care, adopted by the World Health Assembly. It is written for governments and health systems, but its principles, and the actions it sets out for health care facilities, make a useful checklist for any center.
2011
Quality and safety
World Health Organization, 2011.
WHO’s guide to teaching patient safety in schools of medicine, dentistry, midwifery, nursing and pharmacy: a part for teachers on planning courses, and eleven ready-to-teach topics. It also serves the ongoing training of all health care staff, which makes it useful inside a medical center too.
2026
Quality and safety
Bailey et al. Anaesthesia, 2026.
Guidance from the associations of anesthetists and of day surgery in Great Britain and Ireland on caring for adults and children who go home on the day of their operation: who is suitable, assessment beforehand, conditions such as frailty, obesity and sleep apnea, anesthesia and discharge. It follows their 2019 guidelines, which are now archived.
2016
Infection prevention
World Health Organization, 2016.
WHO’s guidelines on what every infection prevention and control program needs, nationally and in hospitals: a dedicated team, guidelines, training, surveillance, monitoring and feedback, enough staff and a suitable environment. The starting point for organizing infection control in any center.
2016
Infection prevention
World Health Organization, 2016.
A manual on cleaning, disinfecting and sterilizing reusable medical devices safely: the rooms and equipment a sterilization department needs, and the standard procedures for each step. Written by WHO with the Pan American Health Organization, for health managers and health workers.
2014
Infection prevention
2nd ed. World Health Organization, 2014.
WHO’s handbook on handling health care waste safely, from used needles to radioactive waste: sorting, storage, treatment and disposal, in routine work and in emergencies. It favors methods that are affordable and sustainable.
2018
Medical equipment
Cohen T, Painter F, Baretich M, Braeutigam D. 2nd ed. AAMI, 2018.
A guide for the departments that look after a hospital’s medical equipment, on measuring their performance and costs and comparing them with others. This edition adds how a group of hospitals can share out the costs of a central department.
2021
Medical equipment
World Health Organization, 2021.
WHO’s guide to the equipment a radiotherapy service needs, with the technical specifications for buying it, in packages for different levels of resources. It is written for the administrators, clinicians and technical staff who plan and run radiotherapy, and complements the IAEA’s guide to setting up a radiotherapy program.
Each link goes to the publisher’s or the official page, and to an authorized Persian or Arabic edition where there is one. Paid books can often be borrowed from a university library.
Links and editions last checked:
Last reviewed by Ali TizMaghz on .
Found a mistake, or a link that no longer works? Email me
