IE 490 – Operations Research in Healthcare



IE 490 – Operations Research in Healthcare

Overview:

The US healthcare industry is in a crisis. Costs are expanding at a rate that is roughly double the rate at which the gross national product is increasing. The US spends more per capita on healthcare than does any other country. At the same time, we rank well below many other western countries on key healthcare metrics including life expectancy and infant mortality. Roughly one in every six Americans lacks healthcare insurance; this contributes to serious disparities in access to healthcare throughout the country.

On an international front, many developing countries are plagued by such diseases as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Basic healthcare in many countries is severely lacking.

Operations research has begun to impact the healthcare industry in significant ways. This impact has ranged from short term local operational improvements within individual physician offices, clinics and hospitals, to the design of improved clinical procedures. Epidemiological studies have benefited from the use of operations research techniques as has the analysis of national healthcare policies. Naturally, healthcare supply chain management has been impacted by the use of operations research methodologies.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an overview of the many applications of operations research in healthcare and to motivate students to contribute to this growing literature.

Course Prerequisites:

The course will focus on reading and discussing a broad range of literature related to applications of operations research in healthcare. Students are expected to have a background in optimization, statistics and stochastic processes. Students who have taken IE 450-1 and who are currently registered in (or have taken) IE 460-1 should have adequate preparation for the course. Students who have taken IE 407, or graduate equivalent, should also be adequately prepared for the course. Students who do not meet these criteria should discuss their preparation for the course with one of the instructors prior to enrolling in the course.

Course Requirements:

1. Students are expected to have read all papers prior to the class in which they will be discussed and to participate actively in the discussion of the papers. Prior to each class, students will be asked to hand in a short summary of the papers to be discussed that day. This summary should be no more than one paragraph per paper and should be written in a style that is suitable for a literature review.

2. In addition, students will be asked to present papers during the class. The presentations should be structured in two parts:

a. a short 15-20 minute overview of the research in a style that would be suitable for an INFORMS meeting presentation

b. a more detailed (though maybe not longer) discussion of one or more of the technical aspects of the paper

3. Finally students will be required to do a term project that uses operations research techniques to analyze some aspect of healthcare. Possible projects include: (1) a detailed literature survey of papers related to one of the course topics, (2) a model designed to improve some aspect of the healthcare delivery system in a hospital or clinic, (3) a discussion and demonstration of operations research applied to a public policy question in healthcare. Clearly, these are only example topics!

Key deadlines for the project are as follows:

a. Monday, January 19, 2009 – students should hand in a one page project proposal

b. Wednesday, February 18, 2009 – students should hand in a progress report on their project

c. Monday and Wednesday, March 9 and 11, 2009 – students will present their projects in class

d. Wednesday, March 11, 2009 – written project reports are due

Course Grading:

As indicated above, students are expected to (a) participate in each class, (b) present papers to the class when assigned and (c) do a term project. These three components of the course will be weighted as follows:

Class participation 20%

Paper presentations 40%

Term project 40%

Instructors:

Mark S. Daskin Sanjay Mehrotra

Dept. of IE/MS, D237 Dept. of IE/MS, D236

Northwestern University Northwestern University

m-daskin@northwestern.edu mehrotra@iems.northwestern.edu

8796. 847-491-3155

Tentative Course Outline:

|Lecture |Day of the Week |Date |Topic |Due Dates |

|1 |Monday |1/5/09 |Introduction to Healthcare and System Modeling |  |

|2 |Wednesday |1/7/09 |Priortization and Resource Allocation |  |

|3 |Monday |1/12/09 |Healthcare Prevention and Safety |  |

|4 |Wednesday |1/14/09 |Hospital and Insurance Revenues |  |

| |Monday |1/19/09 |Martin Luther King Day -- No class |  |

|5 |Wednesday |1/21/09 |Predictive Modeling |1-2 page project proposal |

|6 |Monday |1/26/09 |Treatment Planning |  |

|7 |Wednesday |1/28/09 |Treatment Decisions |  |

|8 |Monday |2/2/09 |Treatment Timing and Govt Policies |  |

|9 |Wednesday |2/4/09 |Healthcare Systems Logistics |  |

|10 |Monday |2/9/09 |Facility Scheduling |  |

|11 |Wednesday |2/11/09 |Long-term Staff Scheduling |  |

|12 |Monday |2/16/09 |Short-term Staff Scheduling - 1 |  |

|13 |Wednesday |2/18/09 |Short-term Staff Scheduling - 2 |  |

|14 |Monday |2/23/09 |Patient and Outpatient Scheduling - 1 |  |

|15 |Wednesday |2/25/09 |Patient and Outpatient Scheduling - 2 |  |

|16 |Monday |3/2/09 |Emergency Preparedness |  |

|17 |Wednesday |3/4/09 |Social Networks and Learning |  |

|18 |Monday |3/9/09 |Information Technology |  |

|  |Wednesday |3/11/09 |Student term project presentations |Written term project reports due |

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