Thomas R. Rohleder, Ph.D.

My research is focused on health care systems engineering. A major aspect of the research is building computer models of health care processes and systems; and using them to test alternative designs before actual implementation.

The intent is to improve any combination of the following:

• Patient access
• Service quality/health outcomes
• Patient and staff safety
• Health resource efficiency

Current studies include:

• Modeling patient flow through cardiovascular surgery
• Maximizing patient access to PET scanners in nuclear medicine
• Optimizing patient access service for available outpatient resources

These studies are typical of health care systems engineering research. They originated with issues and problems of direct interest to the practice and evolved into broader research topics.