Category: Current Projects

The project seeks to design and evaluate highly realistic virtual healthcare environments so that children scheduled for gastro-intestinal (GI) procedures and their parents can experience visual and auditory environments that they will encounter on the day of surgery. The overall goal of the project is to help pediatric patients and their parents overcome the environmental triggers of anxiety and stress prior to surgery. Through VR, these patients and their parents gain firsthand experiences of preoperative, operative, and postoperative environments they will encounter on the day of their procedure. Additionally, their input about the rooms they experience will help in the design of future surgery environments. Collaborators: Prisma Health and Clemson University. PI: Anjali Joseph. Project period: 2021-2022 

The Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing (CHFDT) research team is working on a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant with Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering Jackie Cha entitled, “Adapting to the Future of Robotic Surgery: Understanding Training and Design Environments for Human-Robot Teams.” The major goals of this NSF funded project include developing a framework for designing work and workplaces to support the future of robotic surgery. Project period: 2022-2023

The project seeks to design patient rooms for IU Health that better meet the needs of and improve safety for both patients and staff. IU Health is the largest network of physicians in the state of Indiana, offering a unique partnership with Indiana University School of Medicine, one of the nation’s leading medical schools. Project period: 2022-2023 

The major goal of Identifying and Reducing Errors in Perioperative Anesthesia Medication Delivery (OR SMART) is to engineer reductions in anesthesia medication errors in operating rooms. This study uses a systems’ engineering approach to improve decision making, reduce procedural and technological vulnerabilities and improve the work environment and culture. A highly experienced multi-disciplinary team of clinicians, scientists and engineers is using a combination of innovative techniques to address this threat to patient safety in the most comprehensive study of anesthesia medication safety systems ever conducted.

Sponsor: Agency for Healthcare Research Quality

Project period: 2018 – 2021

AIM 1. Explore Solutions to Failures in Diagnosis, Selection and Prescribing of Intraoperative Anesthesia Medication.

AIM 2: Develop methods to reduce failures in the preparation, administration and recording of intraoperative anesthesia medication

AIM 3: Understand and improve workspace design and safety culture to influences anesthesia medication selection and delivery.

Click here to view the team

The purpose of this multiyear multidisciplinary Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded patient safety learning lab is to develop pediatric care environments in the ED that promote safe, efficient and effective care by minimizing unnecessary stressors for patients while also improving provider well-being. This project includes a focus on the needs of children and their caregivers from minority communities in order to address disparities in mental and behavioral health (MBH) care in the emergency department (ED). Collaborating institutions include Clemson University (CAAH, Industrial Engineering and College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences), Prisma Health, and the University of South Carolina. PI: Anjali Joseph. Project period: 2022-2026

Anjali Joseph and the Center for Health Facilities Design and Testing (CHFDT) research team are working on an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funded project with Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering Jackie Cha entitled, “Investigating the Use of Exoskeletons for Reducing Musculoskeletal Injuries in Surgical Care Tasks.” The goal of the project is to determine the best exoskeleton to use for specific jobs in the operating room to reduce staff injuries.