April 15, 2008

Regenstrief Center conference to highlight health-care research successes, lessons learned

The April 22 conference, titled Research Solutions in Healthcare: Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned, will include presentations on campus research and a discussion from health-care practitioners. The Discovery Park event will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121. Registration for the event, however, is closed.

Michael F. Hindmarsh will deliver the keynote address at noon in the Birck Nanotechnology Center atrium on how to redesign the health-care system to meet the needs of the chronically ill. He is associate director of clinical improvement for the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation at Seattle-based health-care provider Group Health.

Hindmarsh has directed the design and implementation for two of Group Health's population-based clinical improvement efforts - the Diabetes Roadmap and the Depression Roadmap - since the early 1990s. Currently he's researching development of a national model to address chronic care.

"Dr. Hindmarsh has managed federally funded research studies and various internal clinical improvement efforts during his 15 years with Group Health's Center for Health Studies," said Steven Witz, director of the Regenstrief Center. "As part of directing the design and implementation of the diabetes and depression projects, Mike and his colleagues created one of the country's first registries of patients with diabetes."

Morning sessions at the conference will focus on Purdue's research efforts in patient scheduling, acute-care efficiency and patient safety.

Research assistant Chris Roberts, who also is captain of the Purdue Debate Team, will moderate a point-counterpoint discussion on universal health care at 10:50 a.m. Joining Roberts will be Josh Caplan, Aaron Trembath, Mandy McIlwain and Mike Reddy, undergraduate members of the debate team. An audience discussion will follow.

Afternoon sessions are planned on how to manage chronic care for Medicaid dementia patients and how the Regenstrief Center is fostering collaborations across campus disciplines, with case studies involving mechanical engineering, nursing and management.

Leroy B. Schwarz, the Louis A. Weil Jr. Professor of Management whose health-care research focuses on supply-chain and operations management, will moderate the conference's morning and afternoon sessions.

"This conference will explore the process of implementing research innovation in the health-care setting," Witz said. "We also will learn from Purdue researchers and practitioners in the health-care field about their successes and challenges in applying and sustaining transformative change."

Deanna Willis, medical director of quality and medical management at the Indiana University Medical Group and an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at the IU School of Medicine, also will speak. She will discuss her research collaboration with Mark Lawley, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue, in the area of patient scheduling in hospitals and clinics.

"Purdue, through the many researchers working with the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, has played a significant role in implementing our research at Indiana University Medical Group clinic sites," Willis said. "Beyond our project engagements, the value of working with the Regenstrief Center in Discovery Park has come from helping us to continually think about the efficiency and effectiveness of our delivery processes."

The Regenstrief Center was borne out of the 2004 report "Building a Better Delivery System: A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership" by the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. Co-written by Purdue industrial engineering professor W. Dale Compton, the report outlined ways that systems engineering could help deliver safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable and patient-centered care.

Indianapolis-based Regenstrief Foundation provided $3 million to launch the Regenstrief Center in 2005 and awarded an additional $11 million grant earlier this month to expand and extend its partnership into 2012. In late 2007, the foundation also funded $2.46 million in research at the Purdue center in the areas of patient scheduling, cancer diagnostics, and treatment and telehealth.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Sources: Steven Witz, Steven Witz, (765) 496-8303, switz@purdue.edu

Deanna Willis, (317) 278-0300, drwillis@iupui.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Note to Journalists: Regenstrief is pronounced REE-gen-streef. For a complete conference schedule and a lineup of speakers, go to https://www.purdue.edu/dp/rche/spring2008/speakers.php. Journalists who want to arrange interviews with the conference organizers or any of the presenters before the April 22 event can contact Phillip Fiorini, (765) 496-3133, (765) 427-3009 (cell), pfiorini@purdue.edu. While registration for the conference is closed, journalists are invited to cover the keynote speaker, panel discussions and other conference activities.

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