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Digital human modeling can allow designers to optimize healthcare environments according to objectives, such as patient safety.
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People
> RCHE faculty advances human side of computer-aided engineering. More
> Purdue professor, former pediatrician named new chair of Healthcare Engineering Signature Area. More
Projects
> RCHE researchers receive Alzheimer’s Association grant. More
> Team employs industrial methods to re-engineer healthcare clinic. More
Partners
> Health Care Excel Forum on health information technology to be held Sept. 29. More
Progress
> New health IT club offers Purdue students interaction, experience with healthcare professionals. More
> Healthcare Engineering Signature Area to host campus-wide workshop Sept. 26. More
> Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to speak at Purdue. More
Publicity
> RCHE researcher featured in U.S. News and World Report. More
> New systems engineering tools expand view of healthcare delivery. More
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RCHE faculty advances human side of computer-aided engineering
Digital human modeling is transforming the ways in which new and existing workplaces are designed and evaluated. Rather than constructing costly physical prototypes, designers can create computer-generated environments to examine alternate designs of systems and layouts, and the human models that interact with those designs.
A very important element of workplace design is the human interaction with the work system, says Vincent Duffy, Purdue associate professor of industrial engineering and agricultural and biological engineering. His current research focuses on determining how human factors, or the study of human interaction with other system elements to optimize human well-being and overall system performance, can be integrated with computer-aided design of healthcare systems and work environments.
"By considering human physiological and psychological factors during virtual interactive design, we can determine the likelihood of injury or error, given certain workplace conditions and task requirements," Duffy said. "For example, by simulating a nurse's work environment and lifting conditions, one could reasonably predict the likelihood of the nurse experiencing a lower-back injury. This type of information could have impact on the safety of healthcare personnel, patient comfort, and costs associated with worker's compensation and lost productivity."
Digital human modeling and simulation can allow designers to optimize designs according to certain objectives such as patient safety, performance of the healthcare provider, reduction of injury, human error, efficiency, quality and cost.
Duffy earned his master's degree and doctorate in industrial engineering at Purdue, and was previously a faculty member at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Mississippi State University. His research emphasizes collaboration across engineering disciplines, including industrial, agricultural, mechanical, and biomedical engineering. "Healthcare environments are great places to advance interdisciplinary research because of the multidisciplinary nature of the healthcare environment," Duffy said. "We hope that our findings will serve to improve healthcare engineering, and that other engineering disciplines may observe lessons learned through RCHE research efforts."
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Purdue professor, former pediatrician named new chair of Healthcare Engineering Signature Area
Robert E. Hannemann, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering, was recently named the new chair of the Healthcare Engineering (HCE) Signature Area at Purdue University.
The HCE signature area was developed to address the safety, cost, quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery processes and the engineered systems that support and empower them. HCE faculty are positioned to pioneer processes and systems that can transform the present state of healthcare operations and to educate the professionals needed to sustain a revolution.
Hannemann earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue, and worked for Sinclair Oil Co. and U.S. Army Chemical Corps. He attended Indiana University Medical School and started the pediatric department at the Arnett Clinic in Lafayette, Ind. in 1962. Hannemann maintained his pediatric practice through 2000, and is a Purdue visiting professor in chemical engineering (since 1969), child psychology (since 1973), and biomedical engineering (since 1998).
As signature area chair, Hannemann, who served as the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is currently a member of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality, will lead recruitment efforts for additional healthcare engineering faculty and building community among Purdue’s healthcare engineering researchers.
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RCHE researchers receive Alzheimer's Association grant
Evaluating Community-Based, Long-Term Care for Medicaid Dementia Patients
A Regenstrief Center research team was recently awarded a three-year, $239,961 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to fund research in evaluating community-based, long-term care for Medicaid dementia patients. The grant is a direct extension of previous work funded by a Regenstrief Center seed grant (see April newsletter).
Medicaid spending has increased by 63 percent in the past five years and states are under increasing pressure to reverse this trend. Efforts to curb Medicaid spending have focused on developing long-term, community-based programs as a less costly alternative to nursing homes. It is crucial to determine, however, whether Medicaid community-based programs provide dementia patients all the services they need, given their constant and complex caregiving needs. Lack of needed services could pose significant threats to the health of Medicaid patients with dementia.
The research team is led by Laura Sands, associate professor in the School of Nursing; Bruce Craig, associate professor in the Department of Statistics; Joseph Thomas, professor in the School of Pharmacy; and Dr. Michael Weiner, a geriatrician and associate professor at Indiana University Medical School. Researchers are analyzing Indiana Medicaid data to determine whether dementia patients in community-based programs experience:
- Faster transitions from the community to nursing homes
- Greater inpatient, emergency, and outpatient service use over one year
- Greater overall medical care expenditures over one year.
The findings may inform the future development of home- and community-based, long-term care programs so that they are responsive to the needs of persons with dementia while making efficient use of Medicaid funds.
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Team employs industrial methods to re-engineer healthcare clinic
Suresh Chand and Herbert Moskowitz |
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What began as an MBA class project at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management ended up applying factory management techniques that hold promise for improving medical clinic productivity and quality.
"We started with the idea of the need to provide better service to more patients," said Herbert Moskowitz, Lewis B. Cullman Distinguished Professor of Manufacturing Management. "We soon realized that we could employ manufacturing principles emanating from factory physics and established industrial quality techniques to cut patient waits and better utilize medical personnel."
In fall 2004, Moskowitz, Suresh Chand, Purdue professor of operations management, and the MBA class started working with the Indiana University Medical Group's physicians at Grassy Creek, one of its 18 outpatient clinics in Indianapolis serving low-income patients. The Purdue professors and students worked closely with the clinic's nine physicians, led by Dr. Deanna Willis, an IU assistant professor of family medicine. The research was supported by the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering.
The team used an animated simulation model to map clinic patient and physician flow and identify bottlenecks and flow improvement factors resulting in the clinic's being able to serve 37 percent more patients on a given day, translating into increased revenue.
“What we’ve come to understand is that increased revenue and improved quality go hand-in-hand," Chand said. "The simple fact is that if a patient's clinic experience is fast and pleasant, they will avail themselves of more care earlier — a prescription for better health."
Moskowitz stressed that the success of the project stemmed from the cooperative relationship between the medical staff and the researchers. "One of the keys to our success was establishing rapport with the medical personnel so we could work with them to solve problems," he said. "The physicians and staff were wonderful." Read full article. back to top
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Health Care Excel Forum on health information technology to be held on Sept. 29
"The Health Information Technology Puzzle: Where do you fit in?"
Sept. 29, 2006
Fountains Banquet and Conference Center, Carmel, Ind.
This year's educational health forum will provide a host of information and resources to help piece together the health information technology puzzle. Recognized speakers will share their first-hand experiences in implementing HIT within different healthcare settings, discuss the return on investment and identify what technology is on the horizon. The forum is intended for healthcare regulators, providers, and consumers who are implementing health information technology in their facilities to improve the quality of care delivered. Information will be applicable to those considering implementation, and the beginning and seasoned user.
Regenstrief Center faculty member Pamela Whitten Ph.D., will lead a morning session, “Telemedicine: A practical piece of the puzzle?” More.
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New health IT club offers Purdue students interaction, experience with healthcare professionals
Purdue students interested in the emerging area of health information technology now have a place to connect with other students, faculty and healthcare professionals. The Purdue Health Information Technology Club was formed in February 2006 by Khalid Moidu, Ph.D., and Michael Kane, Ph.D., professors in computer technology, and Stacey Price, a senior in computer technology. The club is open to all Purdue students. Nearly 30 students attended the club’s first callout meeting in late August, representing nursing, pharmacy, pre-med, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and computer information technology.
The club’s mission is “to increase awareness and integrate information technology into the healthcare industry through interaction with healthcare professionals and the implementation of projects relevant to industry issues.” According to member Leonard Aloi, the club is continuously seeking opportunities to implement IT solutions in healthcare. “We are currently working on an electronic prescribing solution for the Tippecanoe Community Health Clinic,” said Aloi. “This will allow physicians to fill out prescriptions on a PDA or desktop application, and will make patients’ prescription histories accessible at the press of a button.”
In addition to e-prescribing, the club has formed project task forces in renal dialysis data acquisition requirements, evaluation of hand-held security devices for healthcare, and functional add-ons to the Veterans Administration VISTA electronic health records. Professor Moidu is also offering a fall course, “Introduction to Health Information Systems,” in the department of computer and information technology. The course covers:
- Organization and operations in healthcare delivery
- Information systems deployed today in healthcare
- Assessment of technical, functional and support requirements for acquisition, implementation, and management.
A second course on biomedical informatics, taught by Kane and Moidu, focuses on “data” in delivery of care to design decision support systems.
For more information on the Purdue Health Information Technology Club, contact Stacey Price at smprice@purdue.edu. To learn more about the course, “Introduction to Health Information Systems,” contact Professor Moidu at kmoidu@purdue.edu.
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Healthcare Engineering Signature Area to host campus-wide workshop
The Purdue College of Engineering recently created the Healthcare Engineering (HcE) Signature Area to enhance community among researchers in healthcare delivery systems and the technologies that support them. The HcE Signature Area is sponsoring a campus-wide workshop on Tuesday, Sept. 26, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., co-sponsored by the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. The workshop will survey the broad spectrum of HcE research at Purdue and connect researchers for closer collaboration and synergy.
Space is limited for this free workshop; contact Mary Schultz at schultm@purdue.edu for more information.
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Director of White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to speak at Purdue
“The American Competitive Initiative: Leading the World in Innovation”
John H. Marburger III
Oct. 27, 1:30 p.m., PMU Ballrooms
The number of engineers graduating from U.S. institutions has slipped 20 percent in recent years to fewer than 60,000 a year. At the same time, more than half of the U.S. workforce in the sciences and engineering is approaching retirement age. This trend threatens this nation’s leadership in innovation, research and development in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
John Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a former university president, will outline President Bush’s initiative to bolster the federal government’s efforts in science and technology learning and research. Before his appointment to the White House post in 2000, Marburger served as director of Brookhaven National Laboratory. From 1980-1994, he served as president of the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island.
The lecture, sponsored by Purdue’s Discovery Park and the Lilly Endowment, is free and open to the public. For more information and online registration, visit http://www.purdue.edu/dp/dls/marburger/.
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RCHE researcher featured in U.S. News and World Report
William Peine, professor in mechanical engineering and Regenstrief Center faculty member, was quoted in a recent U.S. News and World Report article about the increasing use of robots in surgical sites. Peine’s work in surgical robotics could have significant impact on healthcare delivery. “Robots can help to provide consistent surgical quality and enable physicians to make more precise incisions,” said Peine. “This can have a significant impact on medical errors, patient recovery time, and system-wide use of resources.” Read article.
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New systems engineering tools expanding view of healthcare delivery
Originally published in Government Health IT Newsletter, August 2006
Using systems engineering, U.S. companies and industries have become some of the most competitive in the world. But so far, the discipline has had little impact on the healthcare universe.
W. Dale Compton, Purdue professor of industrial engineering and co-author of a 2005 report jointly published by the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, acknowledges that some sectors of the healthcare industry uses systems engineering, but it’s spotty. “By and large, the medical profession is not using it, and they don’t know how to use it,” Compton said. “Most clinicians don’t even know the right questions to ask, and likewise the systems engineers don’t know what tools to use when it comes to applying [systems engineering] to healthcare.”
Purdue launched a healthcare engineering organization in 2005 — the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. Director Steven Witz said the center’s goal is to apply systems engineering with a focus on projects that represent real value and relevance to physicians.
“Physicians generally are trained to have a focus of one — the patient — whereas engineers are trained to have a broader view, so we need to have that relevance [in systems engineering] of improving the focus on taking care of individuals,” Witz said. But physicians and systems engineers do share common ground. They are both data-driven and analytical, he said. Read article.
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