Development of health systems curriculum in industrial and systems engineering

Health systems deal with the transformation of healthcare delivery systems from ineffective, reactive, disease-focused systems to achieve cost-effective, pro-active, health and wellness-focused systems. With the increased need to make healthcare systems safer, more effective and efficient, patient-centered, timely, and equitable, industrial and systems engineering concepts and tools have gained wide acceptance and recognition in the healthcare sector. The strategic use of these tools, such as statistical quality control, supply chain management, modeling and simulation, failure-mode effects analysis, lean thinking, and human factors and ergonomics, can be readily used to measure, characterize, and optimize performance at various levels in a healthcare system. Even though there is currently a shortage of health systems engineers at the MS and PhD levels, very few universities have an established health systems curriculum in their industrial and systems engineering departments. The Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton (a.k.a. Binghamton University) has been actively involved in teaching and conducting applied research related to health systems since 2001. This paper starts with career opportunities for industrial and systems engineering graduate students with health systems concentration and highlights the gap between the healthcare industry needs and academic course settings. The development of the graduate level health systems curriculum at Binghamton University is discussed and illustrated in details. The course details of the 30-credit curriculum are revealed and explained as to how they can bridge the gap between academia and the healthcare industry. Finally, the future direction of the health systems concentrations under the industrial and systems engineering degree is discussed.