Speakers at the 2008 ORAHS Conference
Applications of Operations Research in Health Care, presented by Bill Pierskalla
Although many problems faced by operations researchers in health care are not analytically different from problems in other industries, many other are quite unique due to certain characteristics of health care delivery systems. Some of these are the possibilities of death or low quality of remaining life, the difficulty in measuring quality and value of outcomes, the sharing o decisions among several decision markers (physicians, nurses and administrators), their party payment mechanisms for diagnoses and treatments, and the concept of health care access as a right of citizens in society. We attempt to focus on areas involving these unique characteristics.
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Professor William P. Pierskalla served as Dean of The Anderson School of Business at UCLA from 1993-1997. Presently, he is a Professor at the Department of Decisions, Operations and Technology Management at the Anderson School. He specializes in health care management and delivery, and other areas of current research include operations, mathematical programming, transportation, maintainability, and inventory. Professor Pierskalla is a prolific writer - he has published as author or co-author more than fifty scientific papers and has written numerous working papers and technical reports. He also serves on several editorial boards including Health Care Management Science Journal, Production and Operations Management, International Transactions In Operational Research, and previously was Editor In Chief for Operations Research, and Associate Editor for Management Science and Naval Research Logistics Quarterly. He is a Board Member of the Bush Foundation, health2health, Northern Trust Bank of California, and Mount St. Mary's College. While at the Wharton School of Business, Professor Pierskalla served as Director of the National Healthcare Management Center, Chairman of the Healthcare Systems Department, and Director of the Graduate Program in Health Care Administration. During his career, he also has provided consulting and advising services for corporate and non-profit organizations including MDAX Corp., Sun HealthCare Group, the National Institute of Health, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and the Mayo Clinic. Professor Pierskalla has given numerous lectures and seminars in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, and the Middle and Far East. For more information, please visit http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/william.pierskalla/
A Miscellany of Healthcare Models, presented by Jeff Griffiths
Data will be presented indicating the main healthcare problems occurring in Europe, with particular reference to England and Wales, and a selection of healthcare models on which the speaker has worked will be presented. Much of this work has been supported by external organisations, and undertaken with their collaboration. Recent examples include Welsh Assembly Government, various National Health Trusts, European Union, Pharmaceutical Companies, British Research Councils, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, Charities, etc. The emphasis of the talk will be on the practical application of the healthcare modelling process.
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Dr. Jeff Griffiths is Professor of Operational Research in the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University. His research interests include queuing theory, epidemiology, healthcare modelling, and simulation. His first degree was in mathematics, followed by a postgraduate course in statistics, and a PhD in stochastic processes. He has extensive experience as a practitioner and as a consultant in the OR field. His professional qualifications include Fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the Operational Research Society. He was President of the UK Operational Research Society from 2006-2008, and is the UK representative on the International Federation of Operations Research Societies (IFORS), which now comprises 47 nations. For more information, please visit http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/maths/contactsandpeople/profiles/griffiths.html
Cue the Queue Management: Operations Research and Re-design of Services Eliminate Healthcare Wait Lists, presented by Michael Rachlis
Most policy makers assume that health care wait lists automatically indicate insufficient capacity. Applications of queueing theory can be used to reduce variation and better match capacity to demand. But, operations research methods need to be integrated with clinical re-design to eliminate waiting lists and improve health care quality.
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Dr. Michael Rachlis, MD practices as a private consultant in health policy analysis. He has consulted to the federal government, all ten provincial governments, and two royal commissions. He also holds associate professor appointments (part-time) with the University of Toronto, Department of Public Health Sciences, and the Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. Dr. Rachlis has lectured widely on health care issues and has been invited to make presentations to committees of the Canadian House of Commons and the Canadian Senate as well as the United States House of Representatives and Senate. He is a frequent media commentator on health policy issues and the author of three national bestsellers about Canada's health care system. HarperCollins published his third book, Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada's Health Care System, in paperback in March 2005. In his free time, Dr. Rachlis enjoys running and duplicate bridge. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two children. For more information, please visit http://www.michaelrachlis.com/biography.php
