In July 2017, the Wisconsin Institute for Healthcare Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison added three associate directors to its leadership team: Elizabeth Meyerand, professor of biomedical engineering and medical physics, and Oguzhan Alagoz and Jingshan Li, both professors of industrial and systems engineering.
As the former chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the University Committee, Meyerand has excellent knowledge of a wide variety of university constituencies. As co-director of the clinical neuroengineering graduate training program and co-director of the training program for the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, she also provides opportunities for WIHSE to collaborate with ICTR and to train an interdisciplinary group of graduate students and researchers. Meyerand is an internationally recognized expert in brain imaging analysis and directs the pre-clinical magnetic resonance imaging laboratory.
Alagoz leads the health systems group within the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and is the principal instructor for ISyE 417, a course about applying industrial engineering methods to the analysis and improvement of healthcare delivery. He is an internationally recognized expert in applying operations research principles to medical decision-making, particularly in the areas of organ transplantation, breast cancer and infection prevention. Alagoz is an associate editor for several major scientific journals in operations research and healthcare systems engineering.
Li is an internationally recognized expert in control systems engineering in both manufacturing and healthcare who recently received the Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator award from UW-Madison for his impactful research. He has active collaborations with multiple healthcare systems in Wisconsin and across the United States, with a focus on helping these partners improve their workflow and healthcare delivery processes.
Pascale Carayon, the Procter & Gamble Bascom Professor in Total Quality in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and director of WIHSE, looks forward to working with such a strong and dedicated leadership team to advance the institute’s mission of revolutionizing the patient experience, improving population health, controlling healthcare costs, and enhancing clinician satisfaction.
“All three associate directors have amazing track records of funded interdisciplinary research that involves close collaborations with health scientists and healthcare delivery organizations,” says Carayon, who also leads the smart and connected healthcare thrust in the Grainger Institute for Engineering. “Their commitment to improving healthcare and making a difference for patients, particularly vulnerable subgroups such as children, older adults and cancer patients, is exceptional.”