Exposing undergraduate students to the challenges of integrating technology in healthcare delivery

Abstract

Healthcare is increasingly incorporating industrial engineering tools into process improvement initiatives. This includes integrating technology into healthcare delivery, which is an appealing solution to “fix” problems. However, inserting technology without the proper systems integration can limit utility and success. Exposing industrial engineering students to these challenges is critical in training future healthcare leaders. This paper highlights the senior design capstone project for industrial engineering undergraduate students, which is a two-course sequence in the last year of their curriculum. Several of these projects focused on using technology to improve healthcare processes, providing hands-on experience with the challenges of integrating technology in real healthcare systems. These projects can be evaluated in terms of sociotechnical systems components, which considers the system dimensions of the person, task, technology, environment, and organization. Students found that patient-facing technology had more challenges from the other aspects of sociotechnical systems, which influenced the potential sustainability and success of the efforts. They gained an appreciation of the complexity of systems and how technology alone is insufficient to produce lasting, meaningful change. This experience served to prepare industrial engineering students for careers in healthcare and other highly complex industries.