Welcome to the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, Foundations of Healthcare Systems Engineering. In this short course, we will look at how systems engineering can help address current healthcare and future healthcare issues. This is module one of a four part module series. Before we start on the curriculum, let me tell you about myself. I've been at the Johns Hopkins University for nearly 35 years. I have worked in many different areas and applied systems engineering in a wide range of areas, including healthcare. I have a background in physics as well as mathematics and systems engineering, as well as have some working knowledge in business and public health. As mentioned earlier, this curriculum will have four parts to it. In this first part, we'll talk about healthcare drivers. What is actually initiating healthcare needs as we start exploring the different healthcare areas. After that, from a systems perspective, we'll look about the different types of systems within healthcare. There isn't just one type of system within healthcare, there are several different types, and we'll need to differentiate those. Third, we'll look at the systems engineering process. What is the systems engineering process? What are the different stages of the systems engineering process? As well as how do you apply the systems engineering process? And in the fourth module, what we'll look at is healthcare systems integrated with systems engineering healthcare applications. How can we look at different areas of healthcare with the systems engineering lens to help solve the problems? In this first module, we will talk about healthcare drivers. Now, what exactly is a driver driver? Driver's one of those areas that really pushes a particular area to go a certain direction. What are those things within healthcare that drive the needs? What are those specific areas? First of all, we'll start looking at that by defining what is healthcare. What exactly is healthcare? What constitutes healthcare? We will also talk about what is a healthcare system so it's clear what we mean by a healthcare system. And eventually, we will talk through the healthcare delivery and the meaning of that. And then we will start diving into all three of those areas to figure out what are those drivers that push healthcare and the needs within healthcare. When I think of healthcare, I think of it in two different angles. Number one, what are the activities that go on with healthcare? So number one, let's just say maintenance. That's an activity that goes on in healthcare. What are the things that you do day-to-day to make sure nothing goes wrong with your health? But the other activity involves restoration. In case something does go on, what activities can you do in order to restore the health? The other side that you can think of is who does this affect and who does this impact? So first of all, it impacts at a very human and personal level. When we talk about maintenance and restoration, we can think of maintenance and restoration of a human to make sure that they are of proper health on a regular basis. But in case something goes wrong, how do you restore that health? The other angle is looking at the population. What kind of things can we do as a population to maintain health as a group? What kind of things can we do then to restore health in case we do have issues from healthcare perspective? And it's this angle that defines healthcare, the maintenance, the regular maintenance, the restoration in case something goes wrong, but also at a human and population level. Because the human level will impact the population and vice versa. Now, when we think of the human body or the population, and the ability to maintain and restore health to the population or the human body, there are different ways and different things that can impact the human as well as the population. And one of those ways is through disease. And diseases can come in various forms. They can start internally, as well as they can start externally. And they inhibit the proper functionality of the body. And depending on the severity of the disease, there can be catastrophic consequences. So if there's the opportunity to maintain as well as provide treatment and prevention to keep the human body, that is a positive aspect. And then there are cases when we do have to restore and we have to provide treatment in order to bring a human or a population back to normal functionality. Another element of healthcare is the treatment and prevention from injury. As you can see from the diagrams, injuries can occur externally as well as internally. They're normally caused by some type of traumatic force that can overextend the body's ability to recover. And having the maintenance and restoration from injury, that implies that you are working at a level such that your body is not negatively impacted. But in case there is some type of negative force on your body that can cause an injury, there's the opportunity for restoration and treatment within healthcare. Another part of healthcare is the maintenance and restoration of the human body as well as the population from illness. What we talked about earlier was the treatment and prevention of disease and injury, but also we can include illness. Illness is a general category, and some people may say diseases and others are under the category of illness. But just think of illness as an unhealthy condition of the body, but it can also include the mind. And so within healthcare, we are looking at ways to treat and prevent illness for the human population as well as for an individual person. Another part of healthcare is addressing those with other physical or mental impairments. There are cases where a child may be born with physical or mental impairments. There may be some cases when a person has lost a limb by amputation or some type of other dramatic event in their life. And in some cases, people may be born with just other physical or mental conditions. And it's the healthcare area that is geared to help these people with special needs.
