About Us

Established in 2005 by a gift from the Regenstrief Foundation and located in Purdue University's Discovery Park District on the West Lafayette campus, the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (RCHE) conducts research to improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of healthcare delivery through collaboration, partnerships, and engagement. RCHE’s team is comprised of researchers, staff, and outreach advisors that collaborate with the healthcare community to develop science-based approaches to personalized care, match health resources with community needs, and improve access to care among rural communities in Indiana and around the world.

• Mission: Pursue a proactive, patient-centered, and wellness-focused healthcare delivery system by conducting impactful research that leverages collaborative partnerships.
  
  
• Vision: To be a leading research institution that generates evidence for the effectiveness and successful adaptation of interventions and policies to improve the quality, accessibility, equity, and affordability of healthcare delivery.

Research Pillars

Health Systems

Improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes through the deployment of sustainable solutions in health systems by integrating our excellence in engineering, modeling, artificial intelligence, human factors, organizational behavior, and the social sciences.

Population Health and Health Equity

Translate discovery and innovation into real-world solutions to improve population health, and address the root causes of health inequities through meaningful community engagement.

Health Data Science

Harness the power of health and healthcare data via our strengths in computer science, statistics, and mathematics, to improve patients' experiences, outcomes, and population health.

Health Education and Communication

Break down communication boundaries to translate innovative solutions that can improve everyone’s health and wellbeing.

About the Regenstrief Foundation

Born in Austria in 1910, Sam Regenstrief came to America with his family when he was nine years old and they settled in Indianapolis, Ind. His talents and ingenuity led to successful careers in accounting and management consulting, and then to becoming vice president of the refrigeration division of Philco in Connersville, Ind. In 1958, Sam left Philco and organized Design & Manufacturing Corporation in Connersville, which began to manufacture dishwashers and, by the mid-1970s, was producing 37% of the dishwasher market.

Sam was recognized nationally as an authority on industrial production techniques. It was his contention that innovation and new technology, applied to medical problems, would provide better healthcare for more people at a lower cost. Sam joined forces with Dr. John Hickam, then chairman of the Department of Medicine at Indiana University, and formed the Regenstrief Foundation and Regenstrief Institute for Health Care in 1969. The two operated as one entity until June 30, 2002, when a separate entity was formed to house the operations of the Institute. The Regenstrief Foundation funded the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering in 2005 to leverage the robust engineering expertise at Purdue University to solve healthcare systems related challenges.