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Message from the Director Ronald Rardin, Ph.D. John and Mary Lib White Distinguished Professor Department of Industrial Engineering University of Arkansas |
As Director of the Center for Innovation in Healthcare Logistics (CIHL, we call it “Kyle”), I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to our website. I encourage you to look around and see the talented team of academics and industrial collaborators we have assembled, and the projects on which we are currently engaged.
It is no secret that healthcare delivery systems and processes have suffered for many years from inconsistent and sometimes dismal quality, safety and efficiency, with unsustainable cost growth. All of us encounter these shortfalls in our daily lives, and I have strived personally for a decade at Purdue University, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and now at the University of Arkansas, trying to catalyze solutions.
CIHL came together in the spring of 2007 as a fortuitous confluence of three streams of excellence enthusiastic about collaborating to address at least the part of this challenge relating to healthcare supply chains and logistics. The University of Arkansas already had well-known excellence in logistics and distribution through its NSF-sponsored Center for Engineering Logistics and Distribution (CELDi) partnering with 10 other universities and 30 industrial members, its RFID Research Center with over 40 industrial partners, and several other related campus endeavors. Some of that research already related to healthcare, but my joining as John and Mary Lib White Systems Integration Chair in early 2007 brought added healthcare momentum. Then most importantly, Wal-Mart, soon joined by others, approached the University about sponsoring a center addressed to supply chain and material flow aspects of healthcare operations that can be addressed with better information and improved logistics systems and processes. They were motivated by experience with hurricane Katina that showed the highly computerized systems supporting their retail supply chain could be of value in healthcare domains as well.
Today’s CIHL has grown to an industry-university partnership leading a nationwide effort to identify and foster systemwide adoption of ground-breaking healthcare supply chain and logistic innovations. It is housed at the at the University of Arkansas’ flagship campus in Fayetteville with strategic partners Wal-Mart, regional BlueCross BlueShields, and the VHA volunteer hospital supply chain network, who sustain and set directions for the Center, along with healthcare provider organizations, and other industrial partners including Proctor and Gamble, IBM, the AHRMM professional society, and SMI. The Center has sustaining support for approximately 5 years at over $600K annually and employs a team of outstanding faculty and graduate students from the College of Engineering and the Walton College of Business.
We are just getting started, but all of us are excited about the opportunities to have broad impact on problems in healthcare logistics that have persisted for decades. New partners and collaborators are always welcome, and I encourage you to visit the Becoming a Partner webpage.
Warmest Regards,
RON
Ronald L. Rardin, Ph.D.
CIHL Director