Systems Engineering Integration in Healthcare Design: Path to Transform Healthcare Experiences at the Individual, Community National, and Global Level
/Systems Conversation with Ranah Zadeh, Associate Professor, Design & Environmental Analysis, Graduate Field Member of Systems Engineering and Co-Director and Co-Founder of the Health Design Innovations Lab (affiliated with the Institute for Healthy Futures), Cornell University
This Systems Conversation was conducted before Ranah Zadeh gave a talk in our systems seminar series. Title of talk: Systems Engineering Integration in Healthcare Design: Path to Transform Healthcare Experiences at the Individual, Community National, and Global Level
The systems approach is key to developing successful, well-integrated and functioning solutions to address a specific need for individuals, communities and countries. Health and healthcare experiences are complex, interface with multiple factors, involve multidisciplinary fields and relate to many stakeholders.
Today, innovating in health and healthcare means developing solutions that are successfully translated into real-world application to address the existing complex and multifactorial and multisectoral quality, safety, efficiency, cost and equity issues.
Systems engineering integrated with social sciences principles is a promising path forward to practically redesigning and transforming healthcare experiences, whether for meeting the needs of an older person at home, a community interfacing with services, or at the public health or global level.
In this seminar, first, we will describe principles of applying the systems approach in the health design field. Second, we share examples at micro, macro, and mezzo level on the critical role of systems approach to address major gaps, to bring effective innovation and transformation in health and healthcare. The following three examples will be shared:
Health system level: Role of systems engineering, integrated with design and behavioral sciences for infection transfer prevention, also related to the COVID pandemic
Global level: A systems approach in disease management by WHO
Individual and community level: A systems look to address the needs of an older person with dementia at home