E-Enterprise Center brings together Purdue’s best minds to find solutions, spur economy

On Monday, October 18, Purdue University broke ground on a new building that will house the e-Enterprise Center, a home for large-scale research projects that will bring faculty together from all areas of the University to focus on key industries and economic opportunities for Indiana. This groundbreaking signifies more than another new building — it’s symptomatic of a new spirit of collaboration in academia that’s strengthening Indiana’s economy.

In creating the e-Enterprise Center, Purdue reaffirms the old adage that "two heads are better than one," creating an interdisciplinary forum for experts from various fields to examine a problem from a number of different angles.

The e-Enterprise Center is already at work in temporary quarters while its facility is being built. One of its first initiatives, the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, illustrates this collaborative approach. The Regenstrief Center will bring a unique group of researchers together to examine ways to make modern healthcare more efficient and less costly.

At the Regenstrief Center, Purdue experts will apply the principles of technology, engineering, supply chain management and more. The center will also involve many liberal arts faculty in areas such as sociology, health communication and kinesiology, as well as researchers in our schools of pharmacy, nursing, health sciences, consumer sciences, technology, agriculture and even veterinary medicine. All of these experts will focus their energies on the reform of a healthcare system that has been plagued by inefficiencies.

Some initial areas of research at the Purdue Regenstrief Center will include improving the safety and efficiency of patient care, providing more efficient deployment of physicians, nurses and other health-care personnel, and better coordinating inpatient and outpatient treatment.

It’s been proven that better technology and process management can make a difference in healthcare delivery. For example, a recent U.S. General Accounting Office study cited several anecdotal instances of healthcare providers using information technology and data management practices to cut costs and improve care. One hospital (around 2,000 beds) saw nearly $9 million in annual savings by replacing paper medical charts with electronic records for outpatients. A smaller hospital (350 beds) stopped the delivery of over 2,000 wrong drugs or incorrect doses by applying bar code and scanning technologies to patient identification.

These are the sorts of solutions that the Regenstrief Center will study and bring to the marketplace. Indiana is establishing a reputation as an emerging leader in health informatics. The Indiana Health Information Exchange, a consortium of health organizations formed through the BioCrossroads life sciences initiative, recently won praise from the U.S. Surgeon General for its efforts to create a secure electronic network to share clinical patient data among providers in Central Indiana. The Regenstrief Center will help provide the intellectual fuel for these efforts.

In addition to the Regenstrief Center, the e-Enterprise Center will also be home to initiatives in advanced manufacturing and pharmaceutical technologies, and is even working with NASA to develop new lifesupport systems for future space colonies.

Clearly, the e-Enterprise Center will be the site of significant cutting-edge research, the kind of work with great commercial potential. Purdue has always been an economic asset to Indiana — its Purdue Research Park is home to the state’s largest concentration of high-tech businesses, and its Technical Assistance Program is an invaluable resource for Indiana companies. But the e-Enterprise Center has the ability to maximize Purdue’s economic impact.

Ask the CEO of any large company what his or her biggest challenges are, and you’re likely to hear some mention of inspiring employees to work together as a team — to look beyond their own in-boxes and departments and focus on the "big picture" issues that affect the company. It’s the same on a large campus like Purdue’s. Through the e-Enterprise Center, the University encourages the best minds from all of its programs to work together and focus on real-world business opportunities. It’s an exciting development — this groundbreaking is another step forward in building a knowledge-based economy for Indiana.

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