Current Projects

Reducing Emergency Department Crowding (REDC)

In the highly dynamic and fast-paced environment of the Michigan Medicine Emergency Department, every moment counts. The Reducing Emergency Department Crowding team works alongside ED leadership to combat waiting times, streamline patient flow, and ease provider burdens- all geared towards improving patient outcomes and experiences. Utilizing simulation, modeling, and data analysis in conjunction with clinical shadowing, the team evaluates and redesigns protocols across all aspects of Emergency Care.


Community Access to Resources and Education for Sickle Cell Anemia (CARES)

The CARES team is working to improve quality of life and accessibility to health services for pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia. The team aims to reduce health disparities associated with sickle cell anemia by focusing on examining social barriers that reduce appointment and medication engagement.


PARTNER

The PARTNER team works in close conjunction with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to optimize Lung Cancer Screening (LCS) programs in VA medical centers across the nation. Current work includes building simulation tools to help administrators understand the resource demands of LCS processes under a variety of different scenarios, conducting data analysis to understand evolving patient demands, and developing literature and other material to ensure the team’s work is accessible to other researchers. The team is composed of a variety of CS, IOE, and SI students at both the undergraduate and graduate level.


State Hospital Staffing (SH STAFFING)

The SH Staffing team is developing staff management software used by four state-run psychiatric hospitals in Michigan, constantly integrating user feedback and requests. The software facilitates efficient scheduling, tracking, and work distribution to reduce administrative burden and mitigate employee burnout. This summer, the team is focusing on optimizing tool performance through database migration.


Accelerating Clinical Capacity for Efficient Scheduling Systems (ACCESS)

ACCESS (formerly Improving New Patient Access (INPA)) assists Michigan Medicine by researching new tactics to increase the accessibility of care to new patients. The team develops discrete event simulations to estimate the impact of different scheduling approaches and ultimately decrease the lead time of new patients.


Reimagining Obstetrics and Gynecology Using Engineering (ROGUE) 

The ROGUE (formerly Reimagining Operations for Antenatal Care Delivery (ROAD)) team works on improving OB-GYN care for both patients and providers. This semester, the team is focusing on developing a simulation tool to optimize OB-GYN schedules, reduce provider idle time, and reduce patient wait time. Additionally, the team is conducting analysis on social determinants of health and how they impact prenatal care access and experience.


OptiCore

The OptiCore Team is working to develop a C++ optimization tool framework across CHEPS projects. The goal is to simplify the process of creating and developing optimization models without expertise in proprietary optimization software. We use the software development lifecycle and tools like Jira, Agile development, Scrum, Lucid Chart, etc. OptiCore allows users to spend more time solving new problems and less time developing tools.


Enhancing Cancer Center Operations (ECCO)

The Enhancing Cancer Center Operations (ECCO) team works closely with the Rogel Cancer Center at Michigan Medicine to identify areas for improvement for both patients and providers. By focusing on patient intake and navigation, the team hopes to optimize appointment times and enhance the patient experience. This semester, the team will conduct data analysis and clinical shadowing to identify bottlenecks in patient flow. 


Provider Scheduling (PROV SCHED)

The Provider Scheduling Team (PROV SCHED) partners with departments across Michigan Medicine to design and implement optimized clinician schedules. By translating complex requirements into mixed-integer programming models and encoding their formulation into software, the team has streamlined the process of developing schedules that are both efficient and equitable. Our approach reduces administrative burden, minimizes clinician burnout, and maximizes desirable scheduling conditions. Ultimately, our work enhances provider wellbeing, which results in better clinical outcomes for patient care.


SimuCore

The SimuCore team builds a programming library that enables faster turnaround in development of Simulation projects at CHEPS by providing easy-to-use and easy-to-understand functions for commonly used functionalities and abstracting complex logic and database transactions. The SimuCore team works closely with other teams at CHEPS to learn specific project needs to aid in the development of simulations projects.