In This Issue
Message from the Director
Recent News
Where in the World Is CHEPS
Message from the Director
As CHEPS and its activities move into the Winter term I thought it would be worthwhile to reflect on how far CHEPS has come in the past 8 years.
CHEPS was formed in 2011 and sponsored by the College of Engineering, the Medical School, and the Health System here at the University of Michigan with the aim to address the challenge that our society faces of providing high quality, safe, and effective care to patients more collaboratively. Accordingly, our mission at CHEPS is to improve the safety and quality of healthcare delivery through a multi-disciplinary, systems-based approach. The ultimate objective at our inception was not only to solve present real-world problems that would impact the care of patients and the efficiency and effectiveness of care but, more importantly, to produce engineers, physicians, nurses, and other professionals that would acquire the skills, knowledge, and experience in the process of solving these problems that would better equip them to solve problems throughout their career. Said another way, CHEPS focuses on producing fisherman not running a fish market; the goal is not only to address and solve problems by our direct efforts but to develop myriad individuals that are skilled in addressing challenges throughout their career through effective team-based collaborative multidisciplinary systems-based problem-solving.
Since 2011 CHEPS, through the work of its multidisciplinary and multi-professional teams, has undertaken over 16 projects that involved many sub-projects, many of which are ongoing. These efforts have included over 200 individuals involving teams composed of engineering students and faculty; medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty; nursing students and faculty; business school students and faculty; students and faculty from the School of Public Health, Nursing, Michigan Medicine, the School of Dentistry, and multiple departments in the College of Engineering. While the vast majority of the activities have been centered on projects at Michigan Medicine, CHEPS has also engaged with other outside organizations including the VA and The University of Colorado Hospital. These activities have involved topics such as resident scheduling, improvements to the processing of surgical instruments, decreased wait times for patients receiving chemotherapy treatments, operating room processes, and more.
CHEPS has been extremely fortunate to have the enthusiastic participation of people from across the university, the healthcare system, and industry. This has enabled the progress that has occurred and provided a rich experiential learning environment that benefits patients and the health system while producing students and graduates that are prepared to embark on a career that can better bring benefits to society but also bring them greater professional satisfaction.
CHEPS alumni have gone on to positions at Michigan Medicine, Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, as well as at unexpected places such as Netflix and DoorDash. Whether working in the healthcare field or not, they have taken the skills and knowledge they gained at CHEPS out into the world and are making their own impact.
Looking back, I consider our first eight years a success and I look forward to the positive impact CHEPS and our students and collaborators will continue to have as we move forward.
Jim Bagian
Director, Center for Healthcare Engineering and Patient Safety
Recent News
- Tableau Lunch & Learn at CHEPS, 2/20/19
- “Modeling the Impact of Make-Ahead Chemotherapy Drug Policies through Discrete-Event Simulation” published at IEEE Xplore, 2/19/19
- CHEPS Affiliate Ruiwei Jiang Receives NSF Career Award, 2/14/19
- “Kellogg is Keeping an Eye on Patient Safety” in Michigan Medicine Headlines, 1/29/19
- Welcoming Baby Andreas to the CHEPS Family, 1/25/19
- Surgical Instruments Team Presents at Nursing In-Service, 1/24/19
- CHEPS Director James Bagian Editorial in JAMA Neurology, 1/23/19
- “Tiny Digital Tags Improve Eye Care by Tracking Every Step” in Michigan Health Lab, 1/8/19
Where in the World is CHEPS?
CHEPS alum Eli Sherman is pictured kayaking in Lake Union with the Seattle skyline behind him.
See more Where in the World is CHEPS at our webpage.
Center for Healthcare Engineering & Patient Safety | University of Michigan
[email protected] | cheps.engin.umich.edu
