PhD research is a key part of the work at the CHOIR. PhD candidates develop methods and decision-support tools to address complex challenges in healthcare operations, combining operations research, data analytics, and close collaboration with healthcare organizations.
The projects presented here highlight recent research aimed at improving capacity planning, patient flows, and the organization of care.
Negar Abedini | Data-Driven Optimisation of Microbiology Laboratory Workflows
This PhD project focuses on analysing and improving workflow dynamics in modern microbiology laboratories, in close collaboration with Labmicta. The aim is to better understand how samples move through the laboratory system and where waiting times, workload peaks, and bottlenecks occur. By using real laboratory data, the project investigates the connection between automated systems and manual work performed by laboratory technicians. Read more...
Yasmina Babaei | Integrated mobility and healthcare capacity planning
This PhD project examines how healthcare capacity planning can be improved by integrating mobility considerations into home healthcare systems. Embedded in the TRIAS (Triple Access System Planning) project, it addresses major challenges, including population ageing, rising care demand, workforce shortages, and travel inefficiencies. The research examines how physical mobility, spatial proximity, and digital connectivity can be integrated into healthcare planning to improve accessibility, efficiency, and quality of care. Read more...
Jan-Willem De Jong | Value-driven consultations in follow-up care of chronic kidney disease
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) follow-up care often relies on routine repeat consultations, even when laboratory results show no medical necessity. At Isala, 18% of CKD patients appeared not to require an outpatient visit based on lab values alone. The WACHT-NIET project (Value-Driven Consultations in Personalized Kidney Care Pathways) aims to develop and evaluate an integrated invitation and scheduling system for tailored chronic care consultations. Read more...
Youssef Elwan | Hybrid Simulation of Mental Healthcare Systems
TMental healthcare systems are complex adaptive environments shaped by the interplay between individual behavioral dynamics and organizational operational processes. Optimizing such systems requires methodological tools capable of capturing this multi-level complexity in a coherent and integrated way. This PhD project develops a hybrid simulation framework to model, analyse, and evaluate mental healthcare pathways. Read more...
Pauline Fonteijn | Taking care of clients and careworkers in residential care and home care
The aim of this study is to support healthcare organizations both individually and as a network in controlling patient flows (e.g., admissions, discharges, transfers) and the required capacity (e.g., staff, beds) in the right amount and at the right time. To this end, we develop several mathematical tools/algorithms that use a predictive patient flow from hospitals to VVT to properly act on the necessary resource allocation. Read more...
Florentina Hager | Spatial resource and demand allocation in emergency services and hospital-based acute healthcare
This thesis investigates spatial resource and demand allocation strategies in emergency services and hospital-based acute healthcare. The analysis considers both sudden demand surges caused by disasters and persistent capacity constraints in daily operations. Across three sub-projects in Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, the thesis develops and applies mathematical models and heuristic algorithms to support spatial allocation decisions and to quantify the potential benefits of improved spatial alignment between resources and demand. Read more...
Asal KARIMPOUR | Nurse-Centric Scheduling in Home Care
Nurses play a crucial role in the home care sector by delivering care to clients. Dissatisfaction among nurses can lead to higher turnover rates, staff shortages, and increased workloads for the remaining staff. This also raises operational costs for providers, such as expenses for training new nurses and losing clients. Planners face various challenges in decision-making which require a thorough investigation of all aspects of the problem to enhance nurses’ job satisfaction and reduce turnover. In this project, we develop new methods for nurse-centric planinng in home care. Read more...
Jedidja Lok-Visser | There's no place like home: Optimizing capacity management of off-site hospital care activities
This PhD project focuses on evaluating and optimizing the capacity management of off site hospital level care. The project is embedded within the Strategic Centre of the Isala Hospital, where more than 70 off site care activities have been developed and implemented. All studies are practice driven and conducted in close collaboration with healthcare professionals. Read more...
Abbas Maleki | Design and Optimization of Drone-based Medical Items Transportation
This Ph.D. project, which is in the nexus of mobility, energy, and healthcare fields, aims to develop a robust drone-based distribution system that minimizes costs, energy, and environmental waste, and effectively meets the demand for medical items, considering the technical aspects and other potential issues when utilizing drones as a transportation mode. Read more...
Lars van der Meer | Improving Accessibility of Mental Healthcare through Operations Research
In the Netherlands and many other countries, access times to mental healthcare are excessively long and exceed the national waiting time standards. This is due to increased demand and a shortage of staff. Therefore, the available resources must be utilised as efficiently as possible. In this project, we aim to develop integral capacity management methods for the multidisciplinary mental healthcare setting. Read more...
THAO NGUyen | mProving capacity management for healthcare transformation
To maintain accessible and sustainable healthcare, hospitals are transforming how care is organized and delivered. This PhD research investigates how hospital capacity and work processes can be better organized to support healthcare professionals and ensure that patients receive the right care at the right place and time. Read more...
Chris Petri | CARE-FLOW: Enabling data-driven collaboration in interregional healthcare systems
The aim of this study is to support healthcare organizations both individually and as a network in controlling patient flows (e.g., admissions, discharges, transfers) and the required capacity (e.g., staff, beds) in the right amount and at the right time. To this end, we develop several mathematical tools/algorithms that use a predictive patient flow from hospitals to VVT to properly act on the necessary resource allocation. Read more...
Victor Ploeg | Data-driven healthcare models for pandemic preparation
Pandemics put significant pressure on healthcare providers and thereby affect regular care provision. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for accurate short-term bed occupancy forecasts, more coordinated regional patient allocation, and insight into the effects of pandemics on capacity-related questions throughout the care chain to maintain care for both pandemic and non-pandemic patients. This PhD project contributes to the development of a dynamic patient allocation rule to assign pandemic patients to hospitals in a network to balance the load of regular patient backlogs. Read more...
Marieke Rikkert | Capacity management in healthcare with a focus on obstetrics
Our research aims to use various optimization techniques to balance fluctuating demand with constrained resources in healthcare, such as staffing and bed availability. A specific focus lies in maternity care, which we believe is underrepresented from an operations research perspective, highlighting a critical gap. Read more...
IEKE SCHRADER | Capacity planning & scheduling in the Judicial System
The Dutch Court of Law faces structural misalignment between judicial supply and demand, resulting in excessive lead times and unbalanced workloads. While Operations Research (OR) is mature in healthcare and production, its judicial application remains scarce. Recognising that the literature on judicial planning and control is in its infancy, this study identifies the Hearing Scheduling Problem (HSP) as a fundamental step toward professionalising operations. Read more...
Lotte Staal | Capacity constraints in Health Technology Assessment - value assessment of innovations in organ transplantation
This PhD project explores how capacity constraints can be incorporated into Health Technology Assessment (HTA), with a focus on evaluating innovations in organ transplantation. While HTA traditionally assesses cost-effectiveness assuming unconstrained healthcare systems, real-world implementation of innovations is often limited by constraints such as operating room availability, hospital beds, staffing, and waiting lists. Read more...
HOSSEIN Torkinezhadirani | Cross-Border Ambulance Placement
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) face increasing pressure as emergency demand rises while resources remain limited, a challenge that is particularly acute in border regions. In these areas, ambulances from neighboring countries can sometimes reach patients more quickly but are rarely used due to legal, organizational, and operational barriers. This PhD project, conducted within the CARE-FLOW project , addresses this issue by developing data-driven decision-support methods for cross-border ambulance placement, allocation, and dynamic repositioning. Read more...