Health systems engineering

Health Systems Engineering or Health Engineering (often known as "Healthcare Systems Engineering") is an academic discipline that approaches the health care industry and other constructs affecting health and safety as complex systems, and identifies and applies engineering design and analysis principles in such areas. This can overlap with biomedical engineering which focuses on design and development of various medical products; industrial engineering and operations management which involve optimizing organizational operations; and various healthcare practice fields like medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, etc. Other fields participating in this interdisciplinary area include public health, information technology, management studies, and regulatory law.

When referred to as "Healthcare Systems Engineering," it may mean either "Engineering for Healthcare Systems" or "Systems Engineering for Healthcare", with both being within "Healthcare Engineering". "Healthcare Systems Engineering" connotes an emphasis on healthcare delivery, whereas the broader references to "Health Engineering" or "Health Systems Engineering" can also include environmental, safety (e.g. consumer products, structures, transportation), and other public health matters. The systems perspective is always present, but when explicitly included in the term it connotes a particular emphasis on that aspect. In any event, the field focuses principally on human health as well as regulatory science (i.e., the scientific bases of various regulations involving health and safety - e.g. by the FDA, EPA, OSHA, etc.). Due to its breadth often spanning beyond established "engineering" disciplines, and the fact that people not educated or trained in engineering can play a substantial role in the cross-disciplinary discourse entailed, not all aspects of Health Engineering are necessarily deemed to fall within the legal practice of engineering for professional engineering licensure purposes in most US and other jurisdictions.

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