HSyE to Improve Veterans Healthcare with $2M in New Grants
The Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute (HSyE) and its ongoing partnership with the VA was awarded $2M to improve access, safety, and treatment of U.S. veterans.
Source: HSyE
Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute expands initiative to improve Veterans healthcare with additional $2 million for PTSD, patient safety, and infrastructure research
Continuing its ongoing partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Northeastern University’s Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute (HSyE) has received 3 new awards totaling roughly $2 million to improve access, safety, and treatment of U.S. veterans. The awards expand Northeastern’s long-standing work with the VA to help improve veteran’s healthcare and builds on a 5- year contract to develop systems engineering solutions for a broad range of problems. The new projects will investigate algorithms to improve the earlier detection and treatment of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), work on key patient safety issues with the VA’s renowned National Center for Patient Safety, and provide assistance redesigning aging healthcare facilities to be more patient-centered.
“We are deeply committed to this partnership and honored by the opportunity to help improve the care and health of U.S. veterans”, said Dr. Benneyan, HSyE director and senior scientist. The VA provides care for nearly 9 million veterans through over 1,500 care sites across the country and five U.S. territories, honoring President Lincoln’s pledge ‘to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan.’ Past HSyE projects with the VA have focused on improved access and scheduling algorithms, integration of primary and specialty care, regional capacity planning and redesign across the VA’s regional networks, primary care capacity planning, improved screening for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, optimal use of telemedicine and remote health technology, supply chain optimization, deployment of lean engineering methods, improved diabetic control, and statistical analysis and predictive analytics.
The mission of the Healthcare Systems Engineering Institute is to help improve healthcare nationally through the integration of research, application, and workforce development in systems engineering methods. The Institute houses 5 federally-awarded healthcare systems engineering and patient safety centers, several multi-university grants, and 3 undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral training programs, with core funding from the National Science Foundation, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, National Institutes of Health, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A national expert in healthcare systems engineering, Benneyan previously served as senior systems engineer at Harvard Community Health Plan, principal investigator of the New England VA systems engineering center, and on several Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering committees advancing the role of systems engineering for improving healthcare systems.