John Sunkel

Experience

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  KDLA Radio - De Ridder,LA

  Jun 1969 - Dec 1969

  Announcer

  Announcer, production

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  WWOM Radio/TV

  Jan 1970 - Jun 1970

  Announcer/Utility

  Technical director, camera, voice over, audio @ TVAnnouncer, production @ Radio

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  Western Electric

  Aug 1972 - Nov 1974

  Assembly Technician

  Electronic assembly. Component mounting to circuit boards, mounting circuit boards to casting frames.

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  California Auto Radio & Air Conditioning

  Apr 1976 - Feb 1980

  Head Technician

  Maintenance and installation of auto radios, stereos, tape systems, CB and other radio systems.

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  Kaiser Permanente

  Feb 1980 - Mar 2012

  Networking and support of medical computer systems and computerized medical systems.Continuing from the previous position description, the CareVue servers eventually went beyond end-of-life before being replaced by the Epic Health Connect product. Support had to continue for the facilities I supported for about a year and a few months. Philips would not accept calls for support so I had to support these servers (ICU Charting system is what CareVue was) myself as did other members of the group.Support was also required for IT security issues such as virus and worm attacks on the network. I and the rest of the group had to maintain adequate protection for all the medical systems. The vendors would not provide such protection. The group and myself also were responsible for patching the systems with vendor approved patches (due to FDA regulations no unapproved patches could be installed), thus precluding automated patch updates. I began supporting vendor remote access in 2006, coordinating with the IT security folks the granting of access to specific systems to vendors for device support. There was previously no central point for vendors and remote access generally took months if ever to achieve. I took that down to around 2 weeks by learning the IT security process and applying it to requests for access. IT security and the vendors found this service invaluable (according to those groups).In 2007 I became the Senior Biomed for the group, which included some supervisorial tasks. Among other things I was tasked with improving folks' performance where necessary, creating and maintaining on-call schedules, checking for accuracy of service reports. I did not have disciplinary or hire-fire responsibilities, but generally had to operate as the "platoon sargeant" if you will, in addition to on-going field service, the remote access duties, and generally acting as one of the primary interfaces to KP-IT for the Clinical Technology (Biomed) groups. Show less Started Biomed IT group in February 1980. Responsible for maintenance and support of computerized devices and interfaces. Interfaced devices to card-punch machines, mainframe equipment, PCs and networks.The Biomed IT group was also responsible for desktop and LAN support until the IT department grew to take over that support in the mid 1990s, thence migrating to more medical device and connection support. Desktop support included but was not limited to IBM SNA SDLC connectivity, IBM TN3270 connectivity, token ring connectivity, ethernet and arcnet connectivity.Support was also provided for IBM Series 1 computers at the Kaiser Regional Laboratory for the order entry system. This included support for the connectivity to the mainframe systems at the regional data center for the Series 1 systems. Support was also provided for Digital Equipment Corp PDP-11 series computers at the Regional Lab, and their connectivity to mainframe systems.Support was also provided for the installation and administration of Novell and Windows servers for dedicated LANs for Nursing and Operating Room scheduling systems, Quality Assurance systems, Home Health/Hospice systems and more, until taken over in the mid 1990s by the IT departments. Connectivity via modems on telco lines, also connectivity via Novell SAA Gateways was supported. Most of the group was Novell CNEs until Novell servers were phased out.The Biomed IT group (named at different times the "Computer Group" and "Clinical Systems Integration") had a major role in the Y2K events and transition. In subsequent years, the role evolved into more projrct management/installation and then subsequent support for medical computer systems such as Philips (previously HP and then Agilent before becoming Philips) CareVue, GE QS (Quantitative Sentinel), Siemens E-Soft and Magic Link (Open Link) systems and more. While the GE QS and Siemens systems were Windows based including servers, the CareVue systems were HPUX servers. Show less

  • Senior Biomedical Engineer(Biomed IT)

    Nov 2007 - Mar 2012

  • Biomedical Engineer (Biomed IT)

    Feb 1980 - Nov 2007
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  CE Digital

  Mar 2007 - now

  Owner

  Medical and computer system network and administration support.

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  VITEMA

  Jan 2012 - now

  Communications Volunteer
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  Reliable Network Solutions

  Jan 2014 - now

  Network/support engineer.

  Support servers, networks, wireless systems, communication systems, and much more.