Abstract for: Better Healthcare through Better Design of Healthcare Research and Development

One of the major benefits of a government funded research center or lab is the infrastructure it can provide investigators to enable them to stimulate research and training in high priority areas. Most research centers and labs represent complex organizations that must juggle a variety of different funding streams, projects, physical infrastructure, and human resources. Managed well, such organizations can find themselves in a virtuous cycle that leads to an increasing trend of cutting edge research, innovation, and funding that could ultimately have a large impact on society. Poorly managed, research and development organizations can find themselves in a vicious cycle of decreasing funding and quality of research that may ultimately threaten the safety of research. Improving the design, planning, and management of research centers and labs could have significant benefits on making the research and development process more efficient. This paper describes the development and application of system dynamics model to support the design of research center and accompanying management plan. The research and development (R&D) model represents both the current and projected projects that would be needed given a growth scenario, and includes a number of sectors including staff, funding, space, and human resources.