Gelbrich Holsbrink successfully defended her thesis with the title “The optimal allocation of casualties to hospitals in case of a mass-casualty incidence” and with that obtained her master’s degree in Industrial Engineering & Management (IEM) under the supervision of Dr. Derya Demirtas and Dr. Patricia Rogetzer.
For her thesis, Gelbrich worked together with Netwerk Acute Zorg Euregio (AZE), the designated emergency care network for the Dutch regions Twente and Oost-Achterhoek at the bordering region to Germany. AZE optimizes the collaboration of all regional providers in the emergency care chain. During a mass casualty incident (MCI), treatment capabilities are overwhelmed by casualties. AZE prepares their region for an MCI, for example, by organizing Emergo Train System (ETS) exercises.
In her thesis, Gelbrich proposes an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) model that allocates each casualty of an MCI to a hospital. Her model is based on two ETS exercises that have been conducted by AZE in autumn 2019 and simulated the allocation process of casualties to hospitals during an MCI. In this thesis, Gelbrich compares the performance of the ETS exercises to her ILP model and conducts scenarios. Her thesis brings meaningful insights, nice contributions to theory and practice and was therefore graded with a 9.
Gelbrich’s master thesis is available at the following link: https://essay.utwente.nl/85473/
We congratulate our student on this excellent achievement, wish her all the best for her future career and look forward to jointly work on a research paper.
