Systems approach and systems engineering applied to health care: Improving patient safety and health care delivery

Despite the introduction of technology in medicine, chal- lenges related to patient safety and quality health care delivery still abound. The economic and personal costs associated with these challenges are enormous. To address these challenges, APL, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and the Whiting School of Engineering's Systems Institute have teamed to couple systems engineering principles and best practices with clinical expertise to develop innovative approaches to the socio-technical dynamics involved in health care. This work focuses on understanding the interactions among people (clinicians, patients, families, and other stakeholders), processes (institutional, regulatory, professional ethics, etc.), and technology (medical devices and instrumentation) in the health care domain to formulate a systems approach to innovations that lead to improved patient outcomes. APL and Johns Hopkins Medicine are collaborating on improvements at the device level, specifically medication infusion pumps that represent significant patient safety challenges, as well as at the unit level in the intensive care unit.