Managing Miracles
Summer 2017
Dramatic healthcare
breakthroughs
require innovative
project managers.
By any measure, the healthcare
industry is on the brink of unprecedented
challenges, even in the
face of medical and technological
breakthroughs that offer exciting
and hopeful new treatment options.
Consider the sweeping changes
implemented by the Affordable
Care Act that current political
turmoil seeks to unravel. At the
same time, nascent technology like
3D printers, Artificial Intelligence and
robotics is poised for evolutionary
leaps that will alter how medicine
is delivered and healthcare is
administered.
Such serious disruptions will clearly
require innovative management to
coordinate all the moving parts of
this massive and crucial industry.
And that means big opportunities
for anyone seeking a career in
healthcare project management.
“The healthcare field has many
opportunities for project managers
as it grows and changes,” said
Marty Wartenberg, award-winning
UCI Division of Continuing Education
project management instructor and
independent consultant. “Healthcare
delivery is a complex system
combining the human element with
technology and best practices. The
field is rapidly changing and
new applications will completely
change how healthcare is
delivered and managed.”
Innovating the future
Healthcare is indeed poised for
exponential leaps into the future —
and in many ways, the future is now,
said Larry Stofko, executive vice
president of the Innovation Institute,
a leading-edge developer of new
products, services and ideas — sort
of a “Shark Tank” for healthcare
entrepreneurs.
Already, telemedicine allows
patients from remote rural areas to
have instant access to physician
care, significantly reducing ER visits,
mortality rates and healthcare
expenses. Sophisticated 3D printers
are bioprinting artificial human parts
like heart valves and ears, as well as
bionic arms and legs. And Big Data
is being mined at lightning speed by
supercomputers such as IBM Watson
to provide “the most accurate diagnostic
information and previously
untapped insights,” Stofko said.
“We are approaching a world
where quantum computing with its
parallel-computing capabilities will
solve multiple healthcare problems
simultaneously,” he said.
Robotics is another field that
promises to reshape the industry in
especially impactful ways, Stofko
said. “Robots are great and we see
them as having a beneficial impact.
We already see them packaging
and administering medication,
treating stroke victims and helping
to perform medical procedures.”
Providing added dimensions to
healthcare, Artificial Reality and
Virtual Reality serve as supplemental
technology that will continue to
evolve well into the future, he said.
Wearables like Google Glass are
adding an extra digital layer of
text and images to enhance the
capabilities of physicians and other
healthcare professionals. Who knows
where this technology will lead?
“A mixture of Big Data, Internet of
Things, and wearable computing
like Google Glass and HoloLens will
not only play an important role, they
will become the norm in connecting
people with the information they
need to create more precise and
intimate patient treatments and
interactions,” Stofko said.
With technology taking over so many
facets of the industry, an estimated 47% of jobs will be displaced by
2025, according to a recent Oxford
study. Project managers will need to
be increasingly tech-savvy, yet the
human element will become more
essential than ever.
After all, real people will be needed
to incorporate these innovations
into healthcare delivery systems.
And UCI DCE is poised to deliver
state-of-the-art training that
addresses the challenges in a
number of ways.
“It will take highly trained professionals
with all of the backgrounds
that are covered in our various DCE
programs to develop and operate
these systems,” Wartenberg
stressed.
Certified success
UCI offers a wide range of business,
engineering and IT programs that can
shape a well-rounded background
in healthcare project management.
Of particular relevance are the
Business Analyst and Innovation &
Product Development programs,
Wartenberg said.
“The business analyst function
teaches the methods of deter
mining what the actual needs are
and then translating these into
detailed requirements that can be
implemented,” he said. “And the
obvious tie-in of our IT programs is a
natural fit. Other major areas that
have become popular for healthcare
delivery organizations are the
use of Lean and Lean Six Sigma
methods to improve the delivery
process and reduce the number of
errors that are rampant in this field.”
DCE's Six Sigma Lean programs
train project managers to master
complexities that can be especially
consequential in healthcare,
helping to prevent mistakes that
lead to 300,000 to 400,000 unnecessary
deaths each year caused by
misdiagnoses, wrong medication or
dosage, and other factors. “That's
the equivalent of a packed 747
crashing every day,” Wartenberg
said. “Patients go into the hospital
with one problem and something
unrelated causes their death. Six
Sigma Lean trains to evaluate
and eliminate potential causes of
mistakes — idiot-proof all the
processes, in a sense.”
Also, a forthcoming Lean
Healthcare specialization, will
prepare healthcare professionals
to influence change by identifying
and removing non-value added
activities — the waste in time,
money, supplies and goodwill — in
any healthcare organization that
otherwise hide in plain view.
A new Internet of Things program,
still in the pipeline, would provide
solid background for managing
high-tech hospital monitoring
networks, which link a new generation
of wearable tech devices
that monitor and track medical
conditions, effects of treatment,
and other factors.
“Nurses, for instance, use monitor
watches for their patients, and each
needs to be connected to its own
equipment,” Wartenberg said.
“Hospitals have a lot of high-tech
equipment, but devices from each
manufacturer have their own way
of ‘talking’ to one another. Project
managers need to learn to build
dedicated hubs and networks that
connect each type of wearable.”
For those interested, the best
strategy is to start with a business
and/or IT specialization, then cap
it off with a the following Applied
Project Management certificate —
a path similar to getting an MBA
following an undergraduate
degree. And DCE's Applied Project
Management program — taught
by leading industry professionals —
is especially coveted among the
Orange County business community.
“All of the DCE instructors involved
have practical and up-to-date
experience in the areas they
teach,” Wartenberg said. “All are
experts who consult or work full-time
in their areas of subject matter
expertise.”
Learn more about the Project Management Certificate Program.