FEATURES : The Engineered Hospital

Engineering and medicine may be separate on college campuses but they are deeply intertwined in everyday life. Engineering has touched almost everything in hospitals, from the design of the buildings to the equipment used to save lives.

“Think of all the machines that surround someone in the ICU – how they interact, when they set off alarms, even the user interface design. All of this was created by an engineer,” says Sonia Vanderby, Engineer-in-Training and adjunct professor with a joint appointment in mechanical engineering and medical imaging at the University of Saskatchewan.

There’s also the work Vanderby does as an industrial engineer to consider.

“How do we schedule physicians and nurses and patients in a way that allows us to keep costs down and still meet patient needs?”

There are engineered machines and systems for cooking and cleaning, lab testing, artificial joints and prosthetics. Engineering and medicine go hand in hand, and Vanderby has a unique view of how they fit.

Her joint appointment in mechanical engineering and medical imaging is a rarity. It hasn’t been done before at the U of S and she thinks it may also be unique to other universities in Canada.

“It gave me the opportunity to really bring engineering into my research in medicine and bring medical topics and focus into my engineering role – in everything from talking to colleagues, to examples I’m using when teaching classes.”

Give and Take

Engineers bring analytical and technical skills to medicine that are sometimes lacking in that discipline. Doctors often see problems, but they don’t know to solve them. Engineers know how to collect data, build models and solve equations, says Vanderby. That’s where engineers can have the biggest impact.
“Doctors can see that an artificial limb doesn’t respond properly but they can’t solve it. They have these real-world problems that they don’t have the skills to solve.”

The challenge of placing engineers in medicine is that people are unpredictable. Vanderby says this lack of predictability forces engineers in medicine to be creative.
“If I’m designing a combine, a car or a building, I can predi

ct exactly how it’s going to behave. You know how materials will stack up, how a spreader will spray, how a hydraulic hose will work. But when it comes to patients, nothing is predictable. Someone is not going to step the exact same way every time.”

A Missing Piece

Engineers have played an integral role in hospital settings for decades. Vanderby says that before the 1980s industrial engineers were hired by hospitals in the research department to optimize systems but budget cuts led to the elimination of engineers from the staff of many hospitals.

“If you cut doctors, that makes front page news. But if you cut the behind the scenes, it doesn’t. You don’t see them as easily but those behind-the-scenes roles reduce patient wait times.”
The tide is turning back, says Vanderby. Some hospitals in larger centres like Toronto are hiring back those departments as are organizations like Cancer Care Ontario.

“The engineering capacity is being rebuilt. It’s a work-in- progress. As we prove we can help solve problems, the perceived value goes up.”

“Health care is a highly political sector as well. When it comes to nurses versus engineers, it takes brave hospital administrators to take that risk and side with the engineers.”

There are technologists working directly in hospitals – calibrating, installing and repairing machinery – but Aubree Worobetz, major gifts officer at St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation, says she sees a disconnect between engineers and hospitals.

“A lot of the work engineers do for hospitals is done through universities, through research, through labs,” says Worobetz, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biological engineering and a certificate of professional communications from the Ron and Jane Graham School of Professional Development at the U of S.

“There’s so much engineering within the building but there aren’t engineers in the building itself.”

Engineering Solutions

Worobetz says her training allows her to view the hospital through an engineering lens. She understands and appreciates the science she sees during her everyday work. St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation is currently fundraising to purchase an AngioJet Ultra Thrombectomy System which breaks up blood clots in the veins and arteries. The project hits home for Worobetz, who did her fourth-year design project on a biodegradable stent for the carotid artery.

Her project tackled the problem from a biological and chemical angle while the AngioJet uses a mechanical, physical solution. Both solutions were developed in labs away from hospital settings.

While much of this type of off-site research and development is hidden from the public view, Worobetz says that’s starting to change.

“It’s definitely becoming more in the public eye and people are starting to realize the role engineering plays in health care.”

Vanderby, too, sees a shift in how health care is seen in industrial engineering, as well as other fields.
“It’s a realm of abundant possibilities where engineering can be applied to help patients, providers, the system, the infrastructure – everything!” she says. “There’s so many opportunities, and there’s so many problems that need to be solved. We’re not going to run out of work.”