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In the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, the Health Care Systems Engineering Program aims to improve health care delivery systems — as well as increase the efficiency and effectiveness of health care delivery — by applying principles from engineering, management and translational science.

By applying such principles to health care, the program's four components aim to improve patient care, enhance patient satisfaction, and contain or reduce costs.

Systems Engineering and Operations Research

The Systems Engineering and Operations Research component is composed of a multidisciplinary group of faculty with expertise in systems engineering, operations research, human factors, clinical research, statistics, sociology and cognitive psychology.

These faculty members have scientific and methodological expertise in a wide variety of systems engineering areas, enabling them to work across many different health care delivery settings and on multiple simultaneous projects.

Among other responsibilities, they are deeply involved in the design of research methodologies and oversee the analysis of research conducted by the Health Care Systems Engineering Program.

Other members of this component include postdoctoral research fellows and various allied health staff, such as master's-level health systems engineering analysts, statistical programming analysts, computer programmers, R.N. study coordinators, design engineers and student interns.

Inpatient Clinical Engineering Laboratory

To conduct hospital-focused health care delivery research and test ideas before bringing them to patients, the Health Care Systems Engineering Program is establishing the Inpatient Clinical Engineering Laboratory. Specialized technology will allow round-the-clock electronic data collection, enabling high-fidelity advanced computer modeling of health care delivery systems.

This "living laboratory" will be unique in its ability to link patient and health care delivery data. By creating models using these data, it will be possible to conduct "what if" evaluations of new health care delivery methods.

The unit will be available for use by physicians and researchers at Mayo Clinic, as well as external organizations and universities interested in carrying out health care delivery research or testing new patient care processes and devices.

Systems Engineering and Operations Research Collaborative

This internal Mayo Clinic collaborative, which began in 2005, brought together Mayo staff with expertise in areas such as business analysis, health care policy and research, and quality management to study how systems engineering and operations research could be used to improve health care.

Over the past few years, the collaborative has sponsored a number of educational opportunities for Mayo staff, including a monthly seminar, discussion forum, conference on health care systems engineering and operations research, computer-based simulation workshop, and a master's-level Mayo Graduate School course.

With the creation of the Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, the Health Care Systems Engineering Program is now overseeing this collaborative in an effort to increase awareness and promote coordination of systems engineering and operations research activities at Mayo.

Engineering Coordination Council

The work of many Mayo Clinic departments and divisions includes an engineering aspect. To enhance communication among these departments and develop common infrastructure, Mayo formed the Engineering Coordination Council.

Now led by the Health Care Systems Engineering Program, this council is being used to convene Mayo leaders and spur discussions about how engineering intersects with research, patient care and the science of health care delivery.

It is also promoting engineering collaborations, facilitating more efficient and effective applications of multidisciplinary engineering methods and tools, and improving coordination and utilization of engineering resources.