Crowded emergency rooms and long waiting lists are just a few of the many “bottlenecks” that affect the efficiency of healthcare delivery.

Professor Michael Carter (MIE), of the Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering (CRHE) at U of T, was recently on Business News Network (BNN) to discuss how engineering can be used to improve the healthcare system. One way is by identifying waste, he explained.

“People in healthcare are putting in 110%, but they’re not working together, they’re not coordinated… there’s a lot that we can learn about process and having the right person at the right place and time, with the right equipment,” said Professor Carter.

Since 1989, he has been researching healthcare resource modeling with a variety of projects in hospitals, home care, rehabilitation, longterm care, medical labs and mental health institutions. He has supervised more than 160 engineering students in more than 100 projects with healthcare institutions.