Clinical engineering: a new “bridge” for bioethics?

Abstract This case study was based on a performance analysis of the hospital services offered by Dom Orione Hospital, in Araguaína/TO, Brazil, as a result of the structuring of the department of Clinical Engineering in the institution, in which 70% of the services provided are aimed at patients from the Brazilian Unified Health System. The increase achieved in the amount of care provided and in the quality of services offered points to the social nature of this institutional structuring process, noting both its convergence with the principles and values espoused by bioethics, whether from the clinical perspective regarding the social theoretical model, or as it suits the assumptions that guide the Brazilian Unified Health System itself.