U of T opens Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering

Toronto, ON – A new collaborative Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering (CRHE) opened in late January at the University of Toronto, a centre that will advance the expertise and knowledge in solutions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare service delivery.

“Everyone in healthcare is working 110%, but working in silos that prevent us from using our critical health care expertise and resources in the best way. We see the resulting problems, such as long wait lists, daily in the media,” said Professor Michael W Carter, CRHE’s founder and academic director, of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering. “Healthcare engineering is all about replacing silos with a broad system view and getting everyone – people, departments, institutions – pulling in the same direction to make optimal use of our limited resources and taxpayer dollars.”

CHRE will build on the 15 years of achievements by Prof. Carter’s Healthcare Resource Modelling Lab at U of T, expanded to meet increasing demands for expertise from government agencies and healthcare organizations. Past successes have included predicting demand for hip and knee replacement surgeries, modelling the impact of colorectal cancer screening in Ontario and reducing EMS ambulance delays in Toronto.

In addition to providing tools and solutions to make current healthcare services run more effectively, CRHE will provide relevant education for health care workers and the next generation of students who will be managing the quality of our health service delivery. The centre will provide workshops and in-house training in process improvement techniques as well as preparing future engineers for the healthcare industry.

This new centre will collaborate closely with U of T Faculties of Medicine, Nursing and Management. CRHE has partnerships with dozens of researchers at universities across Canada from Vancouver to Halifax and has direct connections with many international industry leaders and academicians.

by Kate Brand