The magic that magic numbers do is all too often black. They hold special significance for terrestrial mammals with hands and watches, but they mean nothing to streptococcus or the value of Google.
Benoît B. Mandelbrot, a maverick mathematician who developed an innovative theory of roughness and applied it to physics, biology, finance and many other fields, died on Thursday in Cambridge, Mass. He was 85.
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Instead of rigorously proving his insights in each field, he said he preferred to “stimulate the field by making bold and crazy conjectures” — and then move on before his claims had been verified. This habit earned him some skepticism in mathematical circles.
via chlady:
The system is just one example of how Seattle Children’s Hospital says it has improved patient care, and its bottom line, by using practices made famous by Toyota and others. The main goals of the approach, known as kaizen, are to reduce waste and to increase value for customers through continuous small improvements.
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Brian Lucas, a spokesman for Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, says the lean efforts have been used to reduce unnecessary tasks and have not resulted in lower nurse-to-patient ratios. “To the contrary,” he said, “they have allowed nurses to spend more time delivering care to patients.”
It’s good to see that OR/IE is alive in healthcare. While I agree with the nurses who think time studies are inappropriate for hospitals, inventory management could greatly benefit healthcare providers from both a cost and a patient care perspective.
Now if someone would just implement this. :-)
Kailas Narendran, a friend of mine from high school, is one of the founders of a company called Myomo that was recently profiled in the New York Times. They have developed a joint brace that helps patients with limited mobility in their arms regain some of that mobility.
“The device is designed to help get patients over a functional hump - so they can start moving the weakened arm again, said John McBean, a mechanical engineer who developed the technology with Kailas Narendran, an electrical engineer and computer scientist. (The two began the project in 2002, in a graduate robotics class at M.I.T.)”
This is amazing work and I’m glad to know someone who’s involved in it.
(read the whole article)
