ݮƵ engineering students are stepping into hospitals and clinics through a new healthcare operations course focused on experiential learning.
In the course, SYDE 599: Healthcare Operation and Practice, students observe and shadow in healthcare settings to see firsthand how engineering and design principles intersect with medical practice and patient care.
“The students see in real time what the pain points are within a holistic system, and it changes their thinking on how engineering design can contribute,” said instructor Dr. Maud Gorbet, professor of systems design engineering (SYDE) and director of the biomedical engineering (BME) undergraduate program. “Often it’s not a technological solution that is needed; it could be a redesigned workflow or policy that makes the biggest difference.”
Instrumental in the delivery of the course is Dr. Christy Goossen, an anesthesiologist and general practitioner who recently joined the department as the inaugural Clinician-in-Residence. Through her connections with the local healthcare community, Dr. Goossen has arranged over 50 shadowing experiences in the hospital environment.
“The shadowing experiences helped me realize that some of the most urgent issues in healthcare are not rooted in a lack of medical innovation, but in the difficulty of effectively implementing solutions that support overburdened systems,” said a SYDE 599 student.
Observations span a wide range of clinical areas, including knee and back surgeries, medical device sterilization and the workflow of nurses in the emergency department at ݮƵ Region Health Network @ Midtown (formerly Grand River Hospital). Part of the assessment for the course is a reflection journal where students log their experience and reflect on how it changes their understanding of healthcare practices.
“During one surgical observation, the patient went into cardiac arrest during the procedure,” said Dr. Goossen. “It was a powerful experience to see how the surgical team communicated, adapted and decided how to proceed in real-time.”
Prof. Gorbet and Dr. Goossen (far right) visiting WRHN @ Midtown with students from a course on sustainable hospital design.
“One of the most important lessons I learned was the critical role that effective, adaptive communication plays in healthcare delivery. Across every setting I observed, successful outcomes were not determined solely by clinical expertise or access to technology, but by how well healthcare providers connected with patients, families, and their interdisciplinary teams,” added another SYDE 599 student.
Dr. Goossen also offers her healthcare expertise to courses in the SYDE and BME undergraduate programs on health systems and engineering design, and to Capstone Design teams working on healthcare-related problems.
“She made us think about new approaches to our problem and gave us knowledge on what is practical within the medical field. Speaking with her made us more passionate about our project,” one Capstone team noted.
Dr. Christy Goossen is an anesthesiologist at WRHN hospitals.
The goal of Dr. Goossen’s mentorship and the in-clinic experiences are to help students build an informed perspective on how technology, people and policy interact in the complexities of healthcare environments.
The Clinician-in-Residence position is made possible by David J. Cornfield (BASc ’85, Systems Design Engineering and LLD ‘24) and Linda Archer Cornfield (LLD ’24). The Systems Design Engineering department is seeking medical clinicians to apply to be the next Clinician-in-Residence.