Purdue Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering announces new director

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Paul Griffin has joined Purdue University as the new director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) and professor of industrial engineering, effective Jan. 1. His appointment resulted from a national search conducted by the university.

Griffin joins Purdue after serving as the Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello chair and professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He also served as the research director for health care delivery in the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech and co-led the Center for Health Analytics. Prior to his Georgia Tech appointment, Griffin served six years as the Peter and Angela Dal Pezzo Head of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State.

“Paul is very well suited and prepared to take on this vital directorship role at RCHE,” said Suresh Garimella, Purdue’s executive vice president for research and partnerships and the Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering. “He is no stranger to applying engineering principles to the complex health care delivery system, and Purdue is very fortunate that he has accepted this important role to lead RCHE into an exciting phase of growth.”

RCHE was established at Purdue with support from the Regenstrief Foundation. Purdue faculty research aligns with the vision of founder Sam Regenstrief “to bring to the practice of medicine the most modern scientific advances from engineering, business and the social sciences, and to foster the rapid dissemination into medical practice of the new knowledge created by research.”

“Paul is accomplished in his field and has great experience in applying engineering principles to issues in health care; that, coupled with the expertise at Purdue, bodes well for the future impact of RCHE. We look forward to working with him to make the health care system work better for those who need it,” said Craig Brater, Regenstrief Foundation vice president for programs.

RCHE is a national leader in collecting and analyzing medical device alert data through its Regenstrief National Center for Medical Device Informatics (REMEDI). To date, more than 275 hospitals and clinics from 23 states contribute data to the REMEDI database. More than 45,000 reports using REMEDI’s analysis tools have been generated by hospital clinicians, resulting in a major impact on patient safety.

RCHE brings together the strengths of Purdue’s engineering, management, clinical, social and basic sciences disciplines to investigate the numerous and complex avenues of the health care continuum, from wellness to care delivery. Tool development for communities of practice and the implementation of innovations and improvements in health care delivery, like the REMEDI program, are among RCHE’s large-scale interdisciplinary projects. Findings from a national strategic forum recently hosted by RCHE, titled Reengineering Healthcare Delivery, will help guide new areas of research for RCHE faculty.

“I am very excited about the opportunity that the role the RCHE director provides,” Griffin said. “I believe we are uniquely positioned to improve health care delivery and inform health policy through an interdisciplinary approach based on systems engineering principles, data analytics, lean thinking and organizational behavioral management.”

Located in Purdue’s Discovery Park, interdisciplinary research faculty affiliated with RCHE provide a rational and data-driven basis for effecting positive change. Since its inception, funding for faculty projects working with RCHE has exceeded $95 million in cumulative extramural research funding. The center is designated a patient safety organization (PSO) by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Writer: Pamela Burroff-Murr, burroff@purdue.edu

Source: Marietta Harrison, special adviser for strategic initiatives in the Office of Research and Partnerships, harrisom@purdue.edu