About TSP

The ITS Administration and Leadership are dedicated to the delivery of the highest quality support services for research, healthcare and the community. Our teams are ready to help meet the needs of our clients in a timely and cost effective manner.

Photo, Name, and Title	Role, Description, and Email
Michael Lane, Director	Michael Lane, Director of ITS, earned a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Vermont.  Mike has served ITS in multiple roles including Associate Director and Clinical Engineer and holds CHTM certification from AAMI and CMQ/OE certification from ASQ.  Michael.Lane@uvm.edu
Laurence Robert, Associate Director	Laurence Robert, Associate Director of ITS, earned a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont and completed an internship at ITS. Larry contributed to the HTM field by developing test equipment, leading a biomedical technician society and working to bridge the CE/IT gap. He holds certifications as a CBET and CHTM from AAMI.  Laurence.Robert@.uvm.edu
Adam Sbardellati, Business Manager	Adam Sbardellati is the Business Operations Manager with over a decade of experience in operations management.  Adam brings an enthusiasm for team building and thrives on fostering collaboration and unity to achieve shared goals. Adam Sbardellati@uvm.edu

Our Leadership works in partnership with your staff and our Biomedical Equipment Technicians and Clinical Engineers to ensure your medical equipment is available and operating at peak performance. They are actively engaged on a day-to-day basis to maintain, troubleshoot, and repair your advanced medical devices. Many of our staff are certified by the International Certification Commission.

Photo, Name, and Title	Role, Description, and Email
Tim Agan, BMET Services Supervisor	Tim Agan is the Biomedical Supervisor for TSP’s Specialty Team. A USAF veteran, he has 38 years of wide-ranging technical experience, with 30 of these being devoted to biomedical technology at TSP. Timothy.Agan@uvm.edu
Richard Barnes, BMET Services Supervisor	Direct responsibility for all biomedical equipment services in North West Regional hospitals Richard.Barnes@uvm.edu
Theresa Bugbee, BMET Services Supervisor	Theresa Bugbee, aka as” TC “ is the Biomedical Supervisor at the UVMMC campus with 25 years of experience. She has been employed  in related medical fields for over 45 years. Theresa.Bugbee@uvm.edu
Raymond Forsell, Clinical Engineering Manager	Raymond Forsell is a Certified Clinical Engineer, Certified Healthcare Facility Manager and Vermont Professional Engineer. He is the Clinical Engineering Manager with 41 years of experience in the profession.  Raymond.Forsell@uvm.edu
Mark Robinson, BMET Services Supervisor	Mark Robinson is a Biomedical Supervisor with over 20 years of experience in the field. A military retiree, he brings dedication and discipline to his work in biomedical technology.  Mark.Robinson@uvm.edu

Clinical Engineers focus primarily on the planning phases of the life cycle in areas such as technology assessment, budgeting, equipment acquisition, patient safety, education, regulatory compliance and risk analysis. They work collaboratively with your staff and our Biomedical Equipment Technicians to ensure that the most appropriate technology is acquired and effectively managed for maximum availability, and revenue production.

Raymond Forsell, Clinical Engineering Manager

• Provides clinical engineering consultation services to all New Hampshire and Vermont hospitals except University of Vermont Medical Center
• Raymond.Forsell@uvm.edu

David Fournier, Clinical Engineer

• Provides clinical engineering consultation services
• David.Fournier@uvm.edu

Zachary Munson, Clinical Engineer

• Provides clinical engineering consultation services to University of Vermont Medical Center and Vermont
• Zachary.Munson@uvm.edu

Leah Francouer, Clinical Engineer

• Primary liaison with University of Vermont Medical Center regarding TSP activities
• Provides clinical engineering consultation services to University of Vermont Medical Center
• Leah.Francoeur@uvm.edu

Haley Kuralt, Clinical Engineer

• Provides clinical engineering consultation services to New Hampshire, New York, and Maine
• Haley.Kuralt@uvm.edu

In the early 1970s, the Instrumentation and Model Facility (IMF) at the University of Vermont (UVM) was receiving an increasing number of requests to provide support services for the new, complex instrumentation at the Mary Fletcher Hospital. Concurrently, the Northern New England Regional Medical Program (RMP) at UVM — a regional collaboration between regional medical schools, research institutions, and hospitals — contacted IMF to request the performance of an electrical safety survey of Vermont hospitals.

It became apparent to RMP and IMF that there was an opportunity for UVM to provide cost-effective, shared clinical engineering services to the hospitals of Vermont.

In 1973, RMP agreed to support a UVM graduate student in conducting a needs assessment of all hospitals in the state of Vermont. The results of his study found that 17% of medical equipment had excessive electrical current leakage and 5% of the equipment was inoperable. A report summarizing his findings resulted in the formation of an ongoing UVM program dubbed the "Technical Services Program (TSP)." The Vermont Hospital Association agreed to coordinate an ongoing program of equipment surveys among Vermont hospitals.

Concurrently, the Universities of Maine and New Hampshire had been considering similar programs. They teamed up with UVM's TSP to submit a grant proposal to the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. This proposal was accepted by the Kellogg Foundation and the result was the formation of the Northern New England Clinical Engineering Program in November 1973. Kellogg Foundation grant funds were proportioned among the programs in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire and funded the early development of these organizations. UVM TSP’s initial staffing included one full-time engineer, two part-time engineers, a graduate engineering student, and a secretary.

The original mission of shared clinical engineering services as defined at a meeting of all Kellogg Foundation–funded organizations in 1973 was:

To provide health care organizations of all types and sizes with convenient and economical access to those technical support and advisory services which are now a necessary part of high-quality patient care.

Funding from the Kellogg Foundation grant to UVM TSP continued until October 1976, at which point individual hospitals assumed responsibility for services rendered. At this time, the Vermont Hospital Association acted as a third party to all contracts and processed all invoices and payments between organizations. The TSP User's Committee was formed to monitor services and fees, and to serve as a vehicle for input into continued program development and evolution.

By this time, two hospitals in northern New York state had been added to the TSP membership. The focus of services was equipment safety and control and direct services such as purchase consultation, incoming inspection, functional testing, preventative maintenance and repair, and education. National Counsel on Radiation Protection (NCRP) compliance testing services were also conducted by TSP for all diagnostic X-ray equipment in the state of Vermont. In 1976, the first seminar co-sponsored by TSP and the Vermont Hospital Engineering Society was held. Additional northern New York hospitals were added as TSP clients in the late 1970s, a move fully endorsed by The Vermont Hospital Association. TSP services were expanded to health care facilities in northern New Hampshire in the 1980s.

In the spirit of its ongoing partnerships with hospitals and independent clinical care facilities in northern New England, TSP formally changed the name of the organization to "Technical Services Partnership" in 2010.

TSP remains a non-profit division within the University of Vermont and continues to build upon its strong heritage of providing trusted, knowledgeable and responsive service to regional health care organizations.