A culture of fear and trust: how society percepts medical engineers

Relevance. The perception of the profession of a medical engineer in the context of digitalization of healthcare necessitates the study of not only technological, but also humanitarian needs of society. The aim is to identify the gap between technical and humanitarian qualities in the perception of the profession of a medical engineer. Research methods. The work was performed using quantitative sociological methods. A sociological survey of medical engineers in the educational environment of the university was conducted (N = 105). Results. It was revealed that 76.2 % of respondents associate a medical engineer with a technocratic role, emphasizing such qualities as responsibility (87.6 %) and communicativeness (77.1 %), while underestimating the importance of humanity (48.6 %) and mercy (37.1 %). A key barrier to the introduction of innovations was identified – the lack of specialists’ qualifications. The dominant motivation of students is participation in the development of medicine (64.8 %), rather than a material factor (1 %). Conclusions. The integration of humanitarian motives