Clinical measurement scientist

What your day might look like

You'll use tests to diagnose and manage various health conditions. You could be working with patients in hospital, at home, in day clinics or using virtual care (telehealth).

Your role will include:

• testing and monitoring patients
• collecting data measurements
• analysing results to help diagnose patients.

You'll set up and use the equipment you need for each patient. You'll work closely with other health professionals and make sure they understand the test results.

You'll need good scientific and analytical skills to make sure your test results are valid. You'll also need to be good at problem solving and troubleshooting when things don't work.

Your strong communication skills will help people feel safe, calm and supported during testing.

You can read more on Your Career about working in:

• cardiac
• respiratory, sleep or neurophysiology.

Cardiac

If you work in cardiac you might be called a cardiac physiologist, cardiac scientist or cardiac technician.

You'll help doctors understand how well a person’s heart is working. You’ll use special machines and tests to check the heart’s rhythm, strength and overall function.

You'll be doing things like:

• recording and analysing the heart's electrical signals using electrocardiography (ECG)
• monitoring someone's heart rhythm while they walk or run on a treadmill (exercise stress test)
• monitoring blood pressure and heart rhythm during procedures for diagnosing blocked heart arteries (angiography)
• assisting in procedures where heart monitoring devices, like pacemakers, are inserted, checked or adjusted
• using ultrasound imaging to check the structure and function of the heart chambers, valves and blood flow through the heart (echocardiography)

You'll need specialist training and more qualifications for some tasks, like cardiac ultrasound and cardiac device programming.

Read more about education requirements, training pathways and careers [PDF 263 KB] on the Professionals in Cardiac Sciences Australia (PiCSA) website.

Neurophysiology

You'll monitor patients to look for disorders in the central and peripheral nervous system. You'll work with people who have conditions like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, brain injuries, and nerve damage.

Your role will include:

• measuring brain activity with an EEG (electroencephalogy)
• measuring how the brain responds to sensory inputs (evoked potentials)
• checking how well nerves are carrying signals to the brain (nerve conduction studies)
• testing automatic body functions like heart rate, blood pressure and sweating (autonomic function testing).

You'll need specialist training and more qualifications for some tasks. Read more about education requirements, training pathways and careers on the Association of Neurophysiology Scientists of Australia (ANSA) website.

Respiratory

You'll work with people who have conditions like asthma, emphysema, cystic fibrosis and other lung conditions. You'll use different machines and techniques to measure how well patients' lungs are working and how that affects other organs.

Your work may include testing:

• how quickly air goes in and out of lungs (spirometry)
• how well the lungs pass oxygen into the blood (gas diffusion)
• how much air the lungs can hold (lung volumes)
• oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood (blood gas tests)
• overall lung function testing to help doctors diagnose and manage disease.

You may also check:

• how the body responds to exercise (cardio-pulmonary exercise testing)
• how the body responds to lower oxygen levels (hypoxic challenge testing)
• how sensitive the airways are (bronchial challenge testing)
• for swelling or irritation in the airways by measuring gases in the breath (fractional exhalation of nitric oxide)
• how well the lungs and heart work when walking for six minutes (six-minute walking test).

Sometimes you'll need to give people medicine as part of doing the test. You'll need extra training and qualifications for some tasks.

Read more about guidelines for qualifications of clinical respiratory laboratory scientists on the Australia and New Zealand Society of Respiratory Science (ANZSRS) website.

Sleep

You'll work in a team of specialist scientists, nurses and doctors to diagnose and treat a wide range of sleep disorders. You'll set up sleep studies and monitor patients while they sleep to check for things like:

• brain activity
• breathing
• heart function
• oxygen and carbon dioxide levels
• conditions like sleep apnoea, narcolepsy, sleepwalking and insomnia.

You'll also help patients learn how to get better sleep and help people to breathe properly overnight or when unable to breathe on their own.

When advanced, you can treat people in hospital who depend on machines to breathe. This is common in acute illness or injury, and conditions like Motor Neurone Disease or respiratory failure.

Read more about qualifications and courses in sleep science on the Australian and New Zealand Sleep Science Association (ANZSSA) website.

Professional growth

Continuing professional development (CPD) is an essential part of being a clinical measurement scientist. You'll build CPD points through:

• in-house education programs
• attending conferences and statewide education days
• research
• education and training with the Clinical Skills Development Service and the Cunningham Centre.

Career paths

Being a clinical measurement scientist can lead to work in a lot of different speciality areas. You can do more training to move from one to another.

If you plan to do more study, ask your training provider if your past studies or work experience can count towards a higher qualification.