Engineering Solutions to America's Healthcare Challenges

Engineering Solutions to America's Healthcare Challenges covers the technologies, systems, and processes that are emerging in hospitals, clinics, community centers, universities, and the White House to repair healthcare in the United States. Focusing on the importance of individuals being proactive about their own state of health, it presents a systems approach to changing the way healthcare professionals do business and take care of their patients. It presents proven Lean and Six Sigma tools that can help any healthcare organization begin making operational improvements that result in a better quality of care for patients.

Ryan Burge is an author and leading consultant for the private sector and government with more than a decade of experience as an industrial engineer, Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and change agent. Recognized nationwide as an innovative consultant focused on financial impact, supply chain management, risk analysis and corporate strategy, Burge has garnered meaningful results for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States military services, Department of Veterans Affairs, and global and Fortune 500 companies. A proponent of positive public awareness and supporting programs that foster the next generation of business leaders, Burge is an author of articles and books on quality improvement, health systems and executive leadership. His latest book, "Engineering Solutions to America's Healthcare Challenges", released in December 2013, covers the technologies, systems, and processes that are emerging in hospitals, clinics, community centers, universities, and the White House to repair healthcare in the United States. Focusing on the importance of individuals being proactive about their own state of health, it presents a systems approach to changing the way healthcare professionals do business and take care of their patients. He is a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of Oklahoma College of Engineering, and is also a member of the following organizations: American Society for Quality (ASQ), Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), and the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ). Burge holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, an M.S. in Engineering Management from the George Washington University, and an M.B.A. and M.A. in Government from the Johns Hopkins University. Burge resides in Alexandria, Va., and can be reached via his consulting firm at www.boulevardcg.com, or by email at ryan.burge@boulevardcg.com.

Prevention and Personal Accountability; Case Study in the Cost of Personal Choice; The Expert Is In: The Number 1 Improvement: Teach Prevention and Wellness; Critical Q&A; System Says; Following the Right Leader; When TOC Is Better Than TLC; Safety; Effectiveness; Efficiency; Timeliness; A Different Strain of Lean; Family-Centered Focus; Equity; Six Sigma; Six Sigma Cost Breakdown; Picture of Six Sigma Health; Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control; Design of Experiments; You've Paid for the Consultant, Now What? Technology and People Behind the Methods; Critical Q&A; Care Ethics; The Language of Care; Critical Q&A; From the Exhibit Hall to Your Body; Dealing with All the Data; Critical Q&A; Trading Hotel Rooms for Sick Beds; Left out by Mainstream Media? Opposing Views; Region Snapshot: Cuba; Critical Q&A; Insured or Imagined?; Medicaid and Medicare; How Engineers Can Help Patients; The Expert Is In; Critical Q&A; The Classroom: Where Medicine Begins; New Faces of Medical Education; Bench-to-Bedside Approach; Engineering Medicine; Exemplary Partnership; Put on Your Scrubs and Learn How to Communicate; Stress Nature over Pharma; Critical Q&A; Health Is the Law; Critical Q&A; Still in Development; Conclusion