Health systems engineering

Health Systems Engineering or Health Engineering (often known as "Healthcare Systems Engineering") is an academic discipline that approaches the health care industry and other constructs affecting health and safety as complex systems, and identifies and applies engineering design and analysis principles in such areas. This can overlap with biomedical engineering which focuses on design and development of various medical products; industrial engineering and operations management which involve optimizing organizational operations; and various healthcare practice fields like medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, etc. Other fields participating in this interdisciplinary area include public health, information technology, management studies, and regulatory law.

When referred to as "Healthcare Systems Engineering," it may mean either "Engineering for Healthcare Systems" or "Systems Engineering for Healthcare", with both being within "Healthcare Engineering". "Healthcare Systems Engineering" connotes an emphasis on healthcare delivery, whereas the broader references to "Health Engineering" or "Health Systems Engineering" can also include environmental, safety (e.g. consumer products, structures, transportation), and other public health matters. The systems perspective is always present, but when explicitly included in the term it connotes a particular emphasis on that aspect. In any event, the field focuses principally on human health as well as regulatory science (i.e., the scientific bases of various regulations involving health and safety - e.g. by the FDA, EPA, OSHA, etc.). Due to its breadth often spanning beyond established "engineering" disciplines, and the fact that people not educated or trained in engineering can play a substantial role in the cross-disciplinary discourse entailed, not all aspects of Health Engineering are necessarily deemed to fall within the legal practice of engineering for professional engineering licensure purposes in most US and other jurisdictions.

People whose work implicates this field in some capacity can include members of all the above-noted fields, many of which have subfields targeted toward healthcare matters even if health or healthcare is not a principal focus of the overall field (e.g. management, law). Areas of biomedical engineering (BME) in this area often include clinical engineering (sometimes also called "hospital engineering") as well as those BMEs developing medical devices and pharmaceutical drugs. The industrial engineering (IE) principles employed tend to include optimization, decision analysis, human factors engineering, quality engineering, and value engineering.

Roles in Healthcare Products, Systems, & Delivery

Most areas in this new field currently tend to focus on some aspect of healthcare delivery. This can include specific product development and implementation, and all the related considerations that affect such, as well as systemic healthcare considerations and even public policy more broadly.

Engineering Design and Product Development

Development of drugs, biologics, devices, and complex products combining different aspects of these, can all influence and be influenced by how the overall healthcare system is structured and how care is administered.

Regulatory Science

Regulatory science looks to the scientific bases underlying the regulation of health-related products and healthcare delivery.

Risk Science and Failure Analysis

Risk is a concept that permeates many areas of product and system design, as well as regulatory science and even policy matters. Its principal components are probability and severity, but such abstractions can be challenging to translate into concrete decision-making practices.

Economic Analysis, Reimbursement/Payment Models, and Value Engineering

Traditional engineering economics looks at comparing alternative projects and avenues, particularly in light of the time value of money. In the health systems context, the number and uncertainty of variables involved - in addition to the inevitably subjective elements - can render such endeavors highly complex. In largely market-based jurisdictions (such as the United States), the role of payment (e.g. third-party insurers, whether private or public/governmental) can be a significant driver.

Information Technology (IT) and Software

Increasingly, software and networks are pervasive in healthcare management as well as device operation.

Public Policy and Management Science

In addition to the policy/management implications of some of the above categories, the general overall structure of how healthcare is organized and delivered varies largely according to countries' respective political systems. For example, in the United States, government traditionally plays a smaller role compared to other highly developed countries, for various reasons which are often a subject of ideological and economic debate.

Other Applications: Beyond Healthcare-Oriented Areas

The following areas all have at least substantial non-healthcare implications for human health.