Engineering-based interdisciplinary education for health systems problem solving

Abstract

This paper examines the educational challenges created by the existence of complex health care delivery systems and the need to train analysts and problem solvers to work effectively within these systems. An undergraduate, interdisciplinary curriculum, based in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is described which addresses these challenges. One particular course is used to illustrate how cognitive and experiential learning approaches are combined to provide the student with a bridge between acquiring technical skills and applying them sensitively in a real world context.