Achieving ‘total delivery’ of healthcare infrastructure

Professor Michail (‘Mike’) Kagioglou is Professor of Process Management and Dean of the School of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Huddersfield. He has published around 200 articles and books, and managed over £20 m worth of research projects – including as a member of the executive of the seven-year, EPSRC-funded (£11 m) Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC). He was a member of the Policy Advisory group at the Department of Health for Estates and Facilities from 2012-2015. The Professor began his Manchester keynote by paying tribute to the work of the UK’s healthcare engineering and estates management professionals, and thanking IHEEM for inviting him to speak at ‘a fantastic event’. He explained that he would be discussing what he dubbed ‘Total delivery’ of healthcare infrastructure, and focusing on some of the key associated issues, with a look at some of the research that he and his team at the University of Huddersfield had recently undertaken around this topic. He said: “Two of the main questions I will be seeking to answer are how we develop the capability and capacity in healthcare infrastructure for the next wave of investment, and, equally, how we can get to the point of optimising the whole system.”

Practical and applied research

The Professor explained that in addition to being a Dean for the whole school, for his research he works within the ‘Innovative Design Lab’ led by Professor Patricia Tzortzopoulos at the University – a ‘multidisciplinary group’ which collaborates with many organisations in undertaking practical and applied research in fields including engineering, the built environment, design, and social sciences. The group’s focus was, his slides explained, ‘on solving real-world problems via a combination of innovation, theories, processes, and technologies’; it works closely with public and private sector organisations ‘to propose solutions to design and project-based problems’.