CHEPS Fall 2023 Seminar Series: Andrew Fine

This week’s Providing Better Healthcare Through Systems Engineering seminar series welcomed Andrew M. Fine, MD, MPH to share his insight into using artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to mitigate physician burnout. Students, faculty, staff, clinicians, and community members gathered to discuss both the potential and the risks of AI-supplemented healthcare.

Fine specializes in pediatric emergency medicine, innovating both children’s healthcare and public health at large. As a Senior Associate Physician in Pediatrics at the Boston Children’s Hospital, Fine has experienced firsthand the effects of provider burnout. He also serves as an Associate Professor in Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Continue Reading »

CHEPS Fall 2023 Seminar Series: Karthik Ramani

On Monday, October 23rd, Karthik Ramani, MD joined CHEPS in discussion at the Providing Better Healthcare through Systems Engineering seminar series. Alongside his work as the Medical Director of Interventional Nephrology and Vascular Access Services at Michigan Medicine, Ramani is pursuing his MBA at U-M’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business and holds particular interest in pursuing greater equity and diversity in clinical trials.

He began with some facts:

  • While minority populations make up 39% of the U.S., they make up only 25% of clinical study participants.
  • While 40% of White clinical trial candidates ultimately enroll in studies, that number drops to 23% for Black clinical trial candidates.
Continue Reading »

CHEPS Fall 2023 Seminar Series: Andrew Rosenberg

“We digitized U.S. healthcare . . . We are now trying to digitalize our workflow, and some is working well, and some is not.”

This is how Andrew Rosenberg, MD, Chief Information Officer of Michigan Medicine and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Internal Medicine, opened this week’s Providing Better Healthcare through Systems Engineering seminar session. His presentation, titled “Digitization-Digitalization-Digital Transformation: Changing Healthcare Paradigms” introduced students, faculty, staff, and community members from U-M and beyond to the complex reality that is adapting a centuries old profession—medicine—to the digital age.

Digitization, as Rosenberg described, refers to the creation of accessible digital infrastructure. One common example of digitization has been the move away from paper medical records to electronic health record systems. Continue Reading »

CHEPS Fall 2023 Seminar Series: Sung Won Choi and Jodyn Platt

Jodyn Platt (left) and Sung Won Choi.

Once considered a “last resort” for those diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, bone marrow transplants (BMTs) have become a more successful treatment option in recent decades. As the number of BMTs performed around the world continues to rise, so do questions about its ethical complexities.

On Monday, September 25th, the Center for Healthcare Engineering & Patient Safety (CHEPS) partnered with Sung Won Choi, MD, MS and Jodyn Platt, MPH to discuss the intricacies of informed consent.

Bone marrow basics

Depending on the kind of cancer a patient is diagnosed with, there are different methods for BMT: while autologous transplants allow a person to “donate” their own pre-chemotherapy stem cells to themselves, allogeneic transplants require donation from another person. Continue Reading »

CHEPS: Where Engineering and Healthcare Overlap

Josh Tran, a pre-med student at U-M, shares his experiences as a transfer student, healthcare worker, and CHEPS researcher.

Blue-tinted photo of Josh Tran smiling at a laptop beside another CHEPS student.

When I transferred to the University of Michigan less than a year ago, it felt as if I had jumped headfirst into the middle of a new book. I arrived at U-M halfway through my sophomore year, and my peers had already found their friend groups through the dorms and their student organizations. Meanwhile, I felt like a freshman again stumbling through the unfamiliar campus. While I was trying to adapt socially, I also had to adapt academically: being a pre-med student, I had to balance finding new friends while also taking some of the hardest classes (so far!) Continue Reading »

More Than Patient Care: Engineering’s Role in Medicine

Arman Getzen, a pre-med student at U-M, shares his experience learning about the complex processes required in order to optimize healthcare operations.

A man in the black shirt smiling

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in medicine. When I was little, my dad would bring me to the hospital where he practiced, and I remember wandering around the unit floor and being fascinated by all the specialized equipment and nurses walking around in their scrubs. I was interested in the providers’ many responsibilities and how the medical devices they used to treat patients worked. I decided early on that my goal was to become a physician, so I started college on a pre-medical track with a major in Biomedical Engineering Continue Reading »