When I met Dr. Joel Nobel at ECRI I was fresh out of college in 1975 and he was about 40 years old. He was clearly a "Man on a Mission" to save patients from pain and injury from defective medical devices, and to improve the efficiency and efficacy of healthcare. In retrospect, I now know that Joel was decades ahead of his time, and I learned that did not deter him one little bit! 

The good Doctor handed each of ECRI's new engineering recruits in the 70's a loose-leaf binder chock full of rigorous Employee Handbook rules and a bright red Swiss Army knife, and threw each of us into an unknown sector of medical technology investigation with a mandate to learn the scientific, engineering, and medical principles, find the flaws in each product, identify constructive remedies where possible, write up our reports, submit to daunting internal scientific and peer review, publish our results, and then present our findings in public conferences. TALL order for 21-year olds on their first jobs, but Joel's faith in us, and his firm direction and discipline, allowed an awful lot of us to succeed beyond our wildest dreams!

"Been there, done that!" was essentially what he said about all the challenges and solutions that I presented at the World Health Organization's meeting in Madrid in the early eighties.  I was reporting the first few years of experience in managing medical equipment for a university hospital in Brazil and obviously did not appreciate to hear those comments from that older gentleman who later I learned was Dr. Joel Nobel.  So I made a point of visiting him and ECRI the next time I was in the US. 

Joel was extremely kind to me during the visit and even offered me to stay at his "bunker" house but I noticed that he had a WWII tank parked in his garden in case I did not behave appropriately.  From that point on, we started a long and fruitful relationship that lasted many years, not only in the US but also in several international projects.  During all these years, I never ceased to be amazed to see how clear and far he presages into the future, well beyond the basics of technology management.

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Joel Nobel.  He was a unique individual person.  And what a visionary.  To have the vision, passion and compassion to start the Emergency Care Research Institute (later ECRI) a not for profit organization dedicated to the safety of the 'patient' using tools like, Health Devices (journal), all I can say is 'wow'.

He brought together talented individuals to help him with his vision.  I was not talented like that, I was just a newly graduated CE when I joined Dr. Nobel in 1976 in the field services group, ECRI Services.

Joel, thank you for your vision, leadership and toughness.  You will be missed as a person and as an innovator.

Betsy and I were driving from Ocean Grove, NJ to our house in Setauket when Betsy mentioned that she thought pachysandras would make a good ground cover around our house.

I told her about the time Joel put all of us to work planting pachysandras around the newly constructed facility in Plymouth Meeting. Probably one of the most productive uses of the talented engineers and scientists Joel had amassed. Joel was quick to do what was right and expedient while crashing through the musty walls of convention.

In the mid 1970's at the beginning of my clinical engineering career, virtually everything I learned about how to evaluate, test, inspect, and maintain medical devices in the hospital environment came from ECRI and Health Devices under Joel's leadership.  The engineering and scientific rigor they brought to their testing procedures along with the scrupulously unbiased nature of their reporting of results set the bar and became the model that continues to serve me still.  The entire HTM and clinical engineering community owes Joel and his pioneering work with ECRI  a tremendous debt of gratitude for the lasting contributions and gifts of insight he gave to us all.