Sugar Creek Solutions was formed in 2003 to devise strategy, to envision systems and to design specialized products for the patient-room space of healthcare. As those products and their surrounding systems became more complex, Sugar Creek Solutions assisted systems-integrators and hospitals in understanding, designing, implementing and troubleshooting those multi-vendor technical systems.
Sugar Creek Solutions then developed an innovative transdisciplinary model of companies, hospitals and other institutions as sociotechnical systems, to manage better the complex interdependency of culture, organizational structure, processes and training with technology.
Now, Sugar Creek Solutions is a leading advocate of the sociotechnical perspective, bringing greater awareness and capability of a Systems Approach to a wide variety of companies, institutions and individuals across industries, markets and skill sets.
Kevin Nortrup
graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois in computer engineering.
A member of HIMSS, SHS, IISE, INCOSE and InfraGard, he is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) and a Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP). He holds several US patents and has extensive experience in designing, implementing, analyzing and troubleshooting complex systems, from microelectronics to direct-broadcast satellite.
As Principal at Sugar Creek Solutions, he researches, practices and champions a transdisciplinary systems approach to managing and navigating the complexity of sociotechnical systems of all types, including: efficient, effective products & services for the Information Age; the processes through which they are developed & delivered; and the companies and institutions that provide those products & services.
- 2018: presented "The Informatics Pause" at Southern California HIMSS Clinical Informatics Summit
- 2018: presented "The Big Picture for Improving Quality and Value" at Kentucky Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (KY-HIMSS) conference
- 2018: presented "Understanding and Improving Quality and Value from a Systems Perspective" at SHS Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference
- 2018: moderated "After PCAST: The Role of Systems Engineering in Healthcare" panel discussion at SHS Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference
- 2018: received "SHS/HIMSS Excellence in Healthcare Management Engineering/Process Improvement Award"
- 2017: presented "Quality and Value in Healthcare: Simple Goals for a Complex System" at Systems and Complexity for Health Conference
- 2017: presented "The Big Picture: Improving Quality, Value and Integration" at Midwest Fall Technology Conference
- 2017: planned and chaired Midwest Fall Technology Conference
- 2017: presented "The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Systems Engineering" at Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) annual conference
- 2017: presented "Modeling, Debugging and Designing Companies & Institutions as Systems" at Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) annual conference
- 2017: presented "Getting Serious About a Systems Approach to Healthcare" at INCOSE Healthcare Working Group, Agile Methods Conference
- 2017: presented "Improving the Process of Process-Improvement in Healthcare Systems" at SHS Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference
- 2017: presented "A Call to Action: From Improving Process to Improving Systems" at Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference
- 2016: presented "The Dilbert Solution: A Systems Approach to Remediating Corporate Stupidity" at INCOSE Great Lakes Regional Conference
- 2016: presented "Up Periscope! Extending the Effective Range of Systems Engineering" at Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE) annual conference
- 2016: presented "Implications and Applications of a Systems Approach in Healthcare" at SHS Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference
- 2015: presented "Escaping the Matrix: A Systems Approach to the Intentional Design of Organizations" at Organization Design Forum Conference
- 2015: presented "A Systems Approach To Healthcare" at SHS Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference
- 2010+: troubleshooting multi-vendor interactive/infotainment systems in hospitals
- 2008+: attended Organizational Systems Renewal workshop & conference (Seattle University)
- 2008: granted 11th US patent, for "On screen display as diagnostic aid"
- 2006: created, designed & introduced IM103, predecessor of IMX101 (2007)
- 2003: founded Sugar Creek Solutions LLC: systems-engineering and interfacing products