Ebook: Operations Research and Health Care: A Handbook of Methods and Applications

In both rich and poor nations, public resources for health care are inadequate to meet demand. Policy makers and health care providers must determine how to provide the most effective health care to citizens using the limited resources that are available. This chapter describes current and future challenges in the delivery of health care, and outlines the role that operations research (OR) models can play in helping to solve those problems. The chapter concludes with an overview of this book – its intended audience, the areas covered, and a description of the subsequent chapters. KEY WORDS Health care delivery, Health care planning HEALTH CARE DELIVERY: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES 3 1.1 WORLDWIDE HEALTH: THE PAST 50 YEARS Human health has improved significantly in the last 50 years. In 1950, global life expectancy was 46 years [1]. That figure rose to 61 years by 1980 and to 67 years by 1998 [2]. Much of these gains occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and were due in large part to improved nutrition and sanitation, medical innovations, and improvements in public health infrastructure.

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The decision technologies, tools and theories of Operations Research and Management Sciences have long been applied to a wide range of issues and problems within health care. To date, however, there has been no single handbook that synthesizes the wide applicability of such techniques. The Handbook of Operations Research and Health Care now makes available to practitioners, students, and researchers a comprehensive handbook volume that will help them improve their ability to apply these decision technologies. In addition, the handbook will present new state-of-the-art techniques, explore new issues and challenges, and examine new avenues for research.
This handbook will fill these needs in a three-fold approach:

It reviews health care systems (in the U.S., other developed countries, and developing countries), their structure, environment, and evolution. It reviews key issues, problems, and challenges experienced today and to be expected in the future.

It synthesizes decision technology applications published in the last 10 years. It describes which health care delivery issues, problems, and challenges were addressed in the past, while highlighting areas for future operations research/management science work in health care.

It provides a comprehensive series of state-of-the-art applications - each of which are written by a leading authority - detailing the problem area, the methodology (or methodologies) employed, the implementation, the results, and the issues/avenues raised for future research.

Each topic will be structured and addressed in such a way that a wide audience will be able to access and use the materials presented. The following topics are examined in the volume:

• Introduction/ Overview:
  • Health care delivery in the US and elsewhere,
  • OR/MS in health; a 10 year overview.
• Health Care Operations Improvement:
  • Scheduling and workforce planning,
  • Inventory management,
  • Supply chain management,
  • Logistics planning and modeling,
  • Equipment planning,
  • Planning,
  • Facility location and layout,
  • Workforce & workload models,
  • Decision support systems,
  • Performance measurement & modeling,
  • Queueing models,
  • Quality management.
• Economic Analysis:
  • Equipment evaluation & selection models,
  • Optimal pricing and costing models,
  • Demand forecasting and planning models,
  • Impact of policies on health care demand,
  • Technology assessment.
• Public Policy:
  • Regional planning and network models,
  • Access and availability population models,
  • Technology diffusion models,
  • Disease prevention,
  • Health care coverage,
  • Vaccine modeling,
  • Organ allocation models,
  • Disease screening,
  • Resource allocation,
  • Drug policies,
  • Blood supply management policies.
• Clinical Applications:
  • Risk assessment and analysis,
  • Clinical diagnosis and decision making,
  • Decision support systems,
  • Disease modeling (individual level),
  • Treatment design and planning,
  • Drug selection models,
  • Optimal dosing models,
  • Vaccine models,
  • Clinical quality.

The handbook will serve a large multidisciplinary audience that includes:

• Decision technology practitioners, students, scientists and researchers with interest (either new interest or existing expertise) in health care,
• Practitioners in health sciences, health administration, public health, health care delivery, and health policy.

---

The decision technologies, tools and theories of Operations Research and Management Sciences have long been applied to a wide range of issues and problems within health care. To date, however, there has been no single handbook that synthesizes the wide applicability of such techniques. The Handbook of Operations Research and Health Care now makes available to practitioners, students, and researchers a comprehensive handbook volume that will help them improve their ability to apply these decision technologies. In addition, the handbook will present new state-of-the-art techniques, explore new issues and challenges, and examine new avenues for research.
This handbook will fill these needs in a three-fold approach:

It reviews health care systems (in the U.S., other developed countries, and developing countries), their structure, environment, and evolution. It reviews key issues, problems, and challenges experienced today and to be expected in the future.

It synthesizes decision technology applications published in the last 10 years. It describes which health care delivery issues, problems, and challenges were addressed in the past, while highlighting areas for future operations research/management science work in health care.

It provides a comprehensive series of state-of-the-art applications - each of which are written by a leading authority - detailing the problem area, the methodology (or methodologies) employed, the implementation, the results, and the issues/avenues raised for future research.

Each topic will be structured and addressed in such a way that a wide audience will be able to access and use the materials presented. The following topics are examined in the volume:

• Introduction/ Overview:
  • Health care delivery in the US and elsewhere,
  • OR/MS in health; a 10 year overview.
• Health Care Operations Improvement:
  • Scheduling and workforce planning,
  • Inventory management,
  • Supply chain management,
  • Logistics planning and modeling,
  • Equipment planning,
  • Planning,
  • Facility location and layout,
  • Workforce & workload models,
  • Decision support systems,
  • Performance measurement & modeling,
  • Queueing models,
  • Quality management.
• Economic Analysis:
  • Equipment evaluation & selection models,
  • Optimal pricing and costing models,
  • Demand forecasting and planning models,
  • Impact of policies on health care demand,
  • Technology assessment.
• Public Policy:
  • Regional planning and network models,
  • Access and availability population models,
  • Technology diffusion models,
  • Disease prevention,
  • Health care coverage,
  • Vaccine modeling,
  • Organ allocation models,
  • Disease screening,
  • Resource allocation,
  • Drug policies,
  • Blood supply management policies.
• Clinical Applications:
  • Risk assessment and analysis,
  • Clinical diagnosis and decision making,
  • Decision support systems,
  • Disease modeling (individual level),
  • Treatment design and planning,
  • Drug selection models,
  • Optimal dosing models,
  • Vaccine models,
  • Clinical quality.

The handbook will serve a large multidisciplinary audience that includes:

• Decision technology practitioners, students, scientists and researchers with interest (either new interest or existing expertise) in health care,
• Practitioners in health sciences, health administration, public health, health care delivery, and health policy.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-viii
Health Care Delivery: Current Problems and Future Challenges....Pages 1-14
Capacity Planning and Management in Hospitals....Pages 15-41
Location of Health Care Facilities....Pages 43-76
Ambulance Service Planning: Simulation and Data Visualisation....Pages 77-102
Supply Chain Management of Blood Banks....Pages 103-145
Evaluating the Efficiency of Hospitals’ Perioperative Services Using Dea....Pages 147-168
Benchmarking Using DEA: The Case of Mental Health Organizations....Pages 169-189
Using Simulation in an Acute-care Hospital: Easier Said Than Done....Pages 191-215
Estimating Risks to the Public Health....Pages 217-254
Modeling Health Outcomes for Economic Analysis....Pages 255-274
Duct Tape for Decision Makers: The Use of or Models in Pharmacoeconomics....Pages 275-296
Drug Policy: Insights from Mathematical Analysis....Pages 297-331
Modeling The Costs and Effects of Maintenance Treatment for Opiate Addiction....Pages 333-361
Harm Reduction in The Control of Infectious Diseases Among Injection Drug Users....Pages 363-401
The Cost Effectiveness of Partially Effective HIV Vaccines....Pages 403-418
Designing Pediatric Formularies for Childhood Immunization Using Integer Programming Models....Pages 419-441
Allocating Resources to Control Infectious Diseases....Pages 443-464
Microbial Risk Assessment for Drinking Water....Pages 465-491
Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy....Pages 493-518
Decision Making for Bioterror Preparedness: Examples from Smallpox Vaccination Policy....Pages 519-536
Models for Kidney Allocation....Pages 537-554
Planning in the Face of Politics: Reshaping Children’s Health Services in Inner London....Pages 555-592
Modeling Medical Treatment Using Markov Decision Processes....Pages 593-612
Dynamic Influence Diagrams: Applications to Medical Decision Modeling....Pages 613-638
Assessment of the Benefits of Anesthesia Patient Risk Reduction Measures....Pages 639-657
An Asthma Policy Model....Pages 659-693
A Bayesian Network to Assist Mammography Interpretation....Pages 695-720
Optimization and Decision Support in Brachytherapy Treatment Planning....Pages 721-740
Radiotherapy Treatment Design and Linear Programming....Pages 741-774
Optimization Tools for Radiation Treatment Planning in Matlab....Pages 775-806
Transmission Model Analysis of Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae....Pages 807-837
The Impact of Novel Treatments on A? Burden in Alzheimer’s Disease: Insights from A Mathematical Model....Pages 839-865
Back Matter....Pages 867-874

---

The decision technologies, tools and theories of Operations Research and Management Sciences have long been applied to a wide range of issues and problems within health care. To date, however, there has been no single handbook that synthesizes the wide applicability of such techniques. The Handbook of Operations Research and Health Care now makes available to practitioners, students, and researchers a comprehensive handbook volume that will help them improve their ability to apply these decision technologies. In addition, the handbook will present new state-of-the-art techniques, explore new issues and challenges, and examine new avenues for research.
This handbook will fill these needs in a three-fold approach:

It reviews health care systems (in the U.S., other developed countries, and developing countries), their structure, environment, and evolution. It reviews key issues, problems, and challenges experienced today and to be expected in the future.

It synthesizes decision technology applications published in the last 10 years. It describes which health care delivery issues, problems, and challenges were addressed in the past, while highlighting areas for future operations research/management science work in health care.

It provides a comprehensive series of state-of-the-art applications - each of which are written by a leading authority - detailing the problem area, the methodology (or methodologies) employed, the implementation, the results, and the issues/avenues raised for future research.

Each topic will be structured and addressed in such a way that a wide audience will be able to access and use the materials presented. The following topics are examined in the volume:

• Introduction/ Overview:
  • Health care delivery in the US and elsewhere,
  • OR/MS in health; a 10 year overview.
• Health Care Operations Improvement:
  • Scheduling and workforce planning,
  • Inventory management,
  • Supply chain management,
  • Logistics planning and modeling,
  • Equipment planning,
  • Planning,
  • Facility location and layout,
  • Workforce & workload models,
  • Decision support systems,
  • Performance measurement & modeling,
  • Queueing models,
  • Quality management.
• Economic Analysis:
  • Equipment evaluation & selection models,
  • Optimal pricing and costing models,
  • Demand forecasting and planning models,
  • Impact of policies on health care demand,
  • Technology assessment.
• Public Policy:
  • Regional planning and network models,
  • Access and availability population models,
  • Technology diffusion models,
  • Disease prevention,
  • Health care coverage,
  • Vaccine modeling,
  • Organ allocation models,
  • Disease screening,
  • Resource allocation,
  • Drug policies,
  • Blood supply management policies.
• Clinical Applications:
  • Risk assessment and analysis,
  • Clinical diagnosis and decision making,
  • Decision support systems,
  • Disease modeling (individual level),
  • Treatment design and planning,
  • Drug selection models,
  • Optimal dosing models,
  • Vaccine models,
  • Clinical quality.

The handbook will serve a large multidisciplinary audience that includes:

• Decision technology practitioners, students, scientists and researchers with interest (either new interest or existing expertise) in health care,
• Practitioners in health sciences, health administration, public health, health care delivery, and health policy.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-viii
Health Care Delivery: Current Problems and Future Challenges....Pages 1-14
Capacity Planning and Management in Hospitals....Pages 15-41
Location of Health Care Facilities....Pages 43-76
Ambulance Service Planning: Simulation and Data Visualisation....Pages 77-102
Supply Chain Management of Blood Banks....Pages 103-145
Evaluating the Efficiency of Hospitals’ Perioperative Services Using Dea....Pages 147-168
Benchmarking Using DEA: The Case of Mental Health Organizations....Pages 169-189
Using Simulation in an Acute-care Hospital: Easier Said Than Done....Pages 191-215
Estimating Risks to the Public Health....Pages 217-254
Modeling Health Outcomes for Economic Analysis....Pages 255-274
Duct Tape for Decision Makers: The Use of or Models in Pharmacoeconomics....Pages 275-296
Drug Policy: Insights from Mathematical Analysis....Pages 297-331
Modeling The Costs and Effects of Maintenance Treatment for Opiate Addiction....Pages 333-361
Harm Reduction in The Control of Infectious Diseases Among Injection Drug Users....Pages 363-401
The Cost Effectiveness of Partially Effective HIV Vaccines....Pages 403-418
Designing Pediatric Formularies for Childhood Immunization Using Integer Programming Models....Pages 419-441
Allocating Resources to Control Infectious Diseases....Pages 443-464
Microbial Risk Assessment for Drinking Water....Pages 465-491
Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy....Pages 493-518
Decision Making for Bioterror Preparedness: Examples from Smallpox Vaccination Policy....Pages 519-536
Models for Kidney Allocation....Pages 537-554
Planning in the Face of Politics: Reshaping Children’s Health Services in Inner London....Pages 555-592
Modeling Medical Treatment Using Markov Decision Processes....Pages 593-612
Dynamic Influence Diagrams: Applications to Medical Decision Modeling....Pages 613-638
Assessment of the Benefits of Anesthesia Patient Risk Reduction Measures....Pages 639-657
An Asthma Policy Model....Pages 659-693
A Bayesian Network to Assist Mammography Interpretation....Pages 695-720
Optimization and Decision Support in Brachytherapy Treatment Planning....Pages 721-740
Radiotherapy Treatment Design and Linear Programming....Pages 741-774
Optimization Tools for Radiation Treatment Planning in Matlab....Pages 775-806
Transmission Model Analysis of Nontypeable Haemophilus Influenzae....Pages 807-837
The Impact of Novel Treatments on A? Burden in Alzheimer’s Disease: Insights from A Mathematical Model....Pages 839-865
Back Matter....Pages 867-874
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