Health systems engineering
Encyclopedia
Health systems engineering is an academic discipline where researchers and practitioners treat health care
industry as complex system
s, and further identify and apply engineering applications in health care systems. This term was first seen in late 70s (Saxton GO 1979). People who work in this field are often called hospital engineers, management engineers
, industrial engineers, or health systems engineers. Many engineering applications, such as optimization, decision making, human factors engineering
, quality engineering, information technology
and communication, and knowledge discovery are currently employed in varied levels of health systems. More detailed information can be seen in joint-report by National Academic of Engineering and Institute of Medicine
, titled "Building a Better Delivery System:A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership".
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
industry as complex system
Complex system
A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties not obvious from the properties of the individual parts....
s, and further identify and apply engineering applications in health care systems. This term was first seen in late 70s (Saxton GO 1979). People who work in this field are often called hospital engineers, management engineers
Management engineering (healthcare)
Management engineering or health systems engineering is a type of engineering in the field of healthcare.Health system engineering includes many different disciplines such as industrial engineering, operations research, management science and quality management.-External links:* * *...
, industrial engineers, or health systems engineers. Many engineering applications, such as optimization, decision making, human factors engineering
Human factors engineering
Human Factors Engineering is the discipline of applying what is known about human capabilities and limitations to the design of products, processes, systems, and work environments. It can be applied to the design of all systems having a human interface, including hardware and software...
, quality engineering, information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
and communication, and knowledge discovery are currently employed in varied levels of health systems. More detailed information can be seen in joint-report by National Academic of Engineering and Institute of Medicine
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine is a not-for-profit, non-governmental American organization founded in 1970, under the congressional charter of the National Academy of Sciences...
, titled "Building a Better Delivery System:A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership".