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3.1.1 A Systems Engineer's Approach to Brain Surgery
Author(s) -
Mackey William F.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
incose international symposium
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2334-5837
DOI - 10.1002/j.2334-5837.2000.tb00349.x
Subject(s) - key (lock) , craniotomy , outcome (game theory) , healthcare system , constraint (computer aided design) , computer science , health care , risk analysis (engineering) , medicine , medical physics , engineering , surgery , computer security , mechanical engineering , mathematical economics , mathematics , economics , economic growth
What can a patient do when faced with a critical health challenge that might be body disabling or life threatening? This author when diagnosed with a brain tumor decided to apply the principles of systems engineering. As a result of applying a reasonable constraint at the early stages of evaluation, the solution to the challenge resulted in two relatively noninvasive cranial procedures, rather than the conventional craniotomy recommended by three of the five neurosurgeons consulted. The approach elected by this author included several systems engineering processes such as developing a concept for the operation, a key requirement(s) definition, a tradeoff analysis of neuroradiosurgery systems, a risk analysis, and even an evaluation of the mission during medical follow‐up. Such medical procedures could not have been conducted successfully as few as 10 to 15 years ago. The thesis of this paper is that patients can affect the outcome of the medical procedures to be conducted on them, and the approaches of the systems engineering discipline are extremely useful when appropriately applied to healthcare challenges.