Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of patients die from preventable harms, significant healthcare costs are wasted, and hospital-based clinicians spend over half of their time documenting, hunting for supplies, and engaging in other nonproductive work, says Alan Ravitz, chair of the new program at Hopkins’ Engineering for Professionals. “The answer lies in using a systems approach to ensure a holistic and seamless integration between technology, workflows, and culture”.
Taught by instructors who are practicing systems engineers or healthcare professionals, the program’s rigorous curriculum balances systems engineering theory and practice, enabling engineers and healthcare professionals to re-engineer healthcare delivery on a broad scale. Students develop concepts for possible solutions that seamlessly integrate technology into healthcare settings, addressing issues such as safety, affordability, security and privacy, performance, and healthcare outcomes.
Students in the new program will complete 18 credits in core courses addressing the fundamentals of healthcare system design, as well as 12 elective credits in areas ranging from the management of complex systems and human systems engineering to statistical methods in public health.
“We aim to educate a new generation of engineers and healthcare professionals that understand enough of the culture, terminology, and disciplines of both systems engineering and healthcare to lead the way in bringing about revolutionary transformation”, Ravitz says.
Approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the new program is now accepting applications for the spring 2019 semester.