On Tuesday July 17
the research group CHOIR (Center for Healthcare Optimization Improvement and Research) organizes the symposium “Operations Research Applied to Health Services: From Theory to Implementation”. We are proud to present a varied program with presentations from researchers, as well as practitioners and implementation partners, a plenary presentation by Prof. Wim van Harten and a discussion session with both researchers and practitioners. The symposium is organized parallel to an international conference, and crossovers between the conference and symposium are possible.
Session 1 has four interesting talks on (practical) research projects. The first presentation focuses on a simulation tool for Operating Room (OR) scheduling, the second one on the packaging problem for disposable items used in ORs. The third presentation discusses tactical resource planning, and the fourth one gives insights in variations in the processes on the ER.
Session 2
(Interaction between OR and ward: from theory to implementation) is sponsored by Information Builders and focuses on a tool to relate the Operation Room with the variability in the ward utilization. In the first talk, a theoretic model is discussed. In the second talk, Information Builders shows how this model is implemented in their Information Management product. In the third presentation, it is discussed how this model is used by the NKI-AVL. In the fourth talk, the usage of OR tools within the Isala klinieken is discussed.
After lunch, a 
plenary presentation is given by Prof. Wim van Harten, member of the executive board of the Netherlands Cancer Institute - Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AVL) and board member of the Dutch Hospital Association, on the translation of operations research methods into hospital practice. After his presentation, Prof. van Harten will start the discussion session in which both researchers and practitioners are present on the need of complex OR models in practice.
Session 3
is sponsored by ORTEC and focuses on personnel planning, and more specifically on implementing scheduling budgets. The first and second presentations discuss the model and the implementation of the model in ORTEC software, and the challenges that this brings. The third presentation discusses a case study in Amerpoort, an organization for Mental Health Care in The Netherlands.
Since the symposium will run in parallel to the scientific conference ORAHS 2012, participants have the option to listen to talks from the scientific program as well, and vice versa. Topics presented include empirical modeling, patient flow, operating room scheduling, policy modeling, home care and stochastic modeling.
The program is organized on the campus of University of Twente, in buildings Waaier and Carré (see route info here). The program will be concluded with a barbecue on the campus. During the social activity, as well as during all coffee breaks and the lunch, participants from both the conference as well as the symposium are present. We hope this will lead to a lot of interaction between theory and practice!
Registration for the symposium costs € 175 (including the concluding barbecue) and can be done via Registration Symposium. More details on the different presentations and the schedule can be found in the Scientific Schedule.