Press Releases
Robot Fetches Objects With Just a Point and a Click
March 19, 2008 — A team of researchers led by Charlie Kemp, director of the Center for Healthcare Robotics in the Health Systems Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology, have found a way to instruct a robot to find and deliver an item it may have never seen before using a more direct manner of communication — a laser pointer.
Lean Techniques Boost Efficiency at Rural Hospital
Average length of stay in emergency department reduced 44 percent
September 25, 2007 — The emergency department at Meadows Regional Medical Center in rural Vidalia, Ga., has achieved what would make most hospitals across the nation envious: a 44 percent reduction in average length of stay per patient, a 10 percent boost in patients served and a 92 percent patient satisfaction rate. With assistance from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the hospital implemented lean manufacturing principles, a process management philosophy known for reducing wasted time and effort in manufacturing.
Tech Research Wins Prestigious Competition
May 1, 2007 — Every year, the Franz Edelman competition recognizes outstanding operations research (O.R.) projects that have transformed companies, entire industries and people's lives. Eva K. Lee, an associate professor at Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, worked with Dr. Marco Zaider, head of Brachytherapy Physics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), to devise sophisticated optimization modeling and computational techniques to implement an intra-operative 3D treatment planning system for brachytherapy that offers a safer and more reliable treatment.
Georgia Tech Creates New Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering
February 13, 2008 — The Colleges of Computing, Engineering, and Sciences at Georgia Tech today announced the creation of a new doctoral degree in Computational Science and Engineering (CSE), a cooperative, truly interdisciplinary effort between the three academic units. Georgia Tech is an established leader in the fields of engineering and sciences, and is quickly becoming recognized for defining the direction of the computing discipline. "Computation, through modeling, simulation, analysis and its other forms, is essential in creating new applications with great impact on the sustainable growth of cities, the design of power-efficient buildings, the creation of new biomedical devices, the eradication of life-threatening diseases and other issues of great social importance," said Richard Fujimoto, the Chair of CSE.
Georgia Tech's CATEA's new online network helps inform the disability community and aging population of the latest research, products and services
August 7, 2007 — Georgia Tech's Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access (CATEA) Consumer Network (CCN) is an on-line community that shares information about new developments in disability and aging related-products and services. By joining CCN, members are among the first to preview new advances in disability and aging-related products and provide input to make them more usable and accessible.
Tech/Children's Partner on $5M Pediatric Center
October 25, 2006 — Accuracy in patient care is essential, be it accuracy in the amount of medication given to a patient or accuracy while checking for patient allergies or evaluating lab results — and in the pediatric world, the measures taken to reduce human error are equally essential, if not more paramount. To address accuracy in patient care, two leading Georgia institutions have joined in an effort to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing pediatric health care and improving outcomes overall.
HHS Leavitt Attends Signing of Health Reform Initiative at Tech
February 12, 2007 — In a meeting at the Georgia Institute of Technology, representatives from top Georgia companies and organizations such as The Coca Cola Co., AT&T, United Parcel Service, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Hospital Association and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce joined Georgia Gov. Sonny Purdue, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and Founder of the Center for Health Transformation Newt Gingrich and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to sign their support for a national initiative aimed at improving health care quality, information and cost-effectiveness for employees and their families.
Health Systems Engineering
Health Systems Institute
The Health Systems Institute's mission is to develop and implement novel multidisciplinary and collaborative research, education, and outreach programs to transform health care delivery systems and lead the nation away from an ineffective, reactive, disease-focused system to achieve a cost-effective, pro-active, health- and wellness-focused system. The Georgia Tech/Emory initiative is creating a new model for healthcare delivery through integrative interdisciplinary solutions, drawing medicine, engineering, computing, management and public policy.
The research objectives are to advance fundamental knowledge of issues central to the delivery of health care services through efficient allocation and management of health resources, and the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of integrated, patient-centered, and personalized health care delivery systems that capitalize on state-of-the-art information, communication, decision support, healthcare and biomedical technologies.
Gregory Abowd, Ph.D.
Interim Director, Health Systems Institute
Distinguished Professor of Interactive Computing, College of Computing
Phone: 404-894-7512
Fax: 404-894-2970
Location: Technology Square Research Building - Room 329
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Gregory Abowd
Interim Director, Health Systems Institute
Richard Fujimoto
Professor & Chair, Computational Science and Engineering
Paula Edwards
Director, Center for Pediatric Outcomes and Quality
Ken Brigham
Professor of Medicine, Emory
Charlie Kemp
Director, Center for Healthcare Robotics
Eva Lee
Director, Center for Operations Research in Medicine and Healthcare