Beginning this fall, the Viterbi School will offer a Master of Science program in Health Systems Engineering, along with short courses in special topics this summer.
“Healthcare is becoming an ever increasingly important sector of the US economy, and health care applications are expanding rapidly within industrial engineering disciplines,” said Kelly Goulis, Viterbi School Associate Dean for Master’s and Professional Programs (MAPP). “There is a national consensus on the need for more effective health management, and we are confident that these programs will help to train effective managers.”
The M.S. degree is designed for students interested in operations management and health care applications, and whose career objectives lead to increasing technical management responsibilities in larger health care organizations, particularly hospitals.
The Viterbi School’s Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering has been working for years in the area. Professor David Belson and colleagues have recently published papers showing substantial improvement in operation room efficiency by applying the techniques used in other complex processes.
“These techniques are a win-win for patients and hospitals: more efficiency means lower cost and better service,” said Goulis. “We also believe the flexible instruction system that USC’s Distance Education Network [DEN] provides is ideally suited to respond to this need.”
In addition to the M.S. degree, MAPP will offer two two-day short courses this summer, “Process Improvement in Health Care” (July 13-14, 2009 ) and “Patient Safety Management Systems (July 16-17, 2009).
About the Viterbi Master’s and Professional Programs:
In 2006, the Viterbi School created a new division of Master’s and Professional Programs, making the continuing education of engineering professionals a top priority. This division’s is responsible for the implementation of Master of Science programs, short courses, specialized custom courses and certificate programs. More information is available on the division homepage at http://viterbi.usc.edu/admission/graduate/mapp/###
