The University of Twente has put together a team of researchers to help solve logistical problems in the healthcare sector caused by the corona pandemic.
“We see it as our social and scientific duty to use our expertise to contribute to the fight against corona”, says Richard Boucherie, professor of Operations Research at the University of Twente. Boucherie, who specialises in healthcare logistics, will be heading up the new team together with Erwin Hans, professor of Operations Management in Healthcare.
The rest of the group will consist of researchers from the Center for Healthcare Operations Improvement and Research (CHOIR), a multidisciplinary knowledge centre at the University of Twente which focuses on optimising logistics processes in healthcare.
Boucherie is calling on healthcare institutions and hospitals to make use of CHOIR’s healthcare logistics expertise in order to achieve optimal deployment of people and resources during the corona crisis. “Which challenges we’ll be taking on in the period ahead is something we’d like to decide in close consultation with the healthcare sector. I expect that we’ll be able to quickly indicate which problems our team can help out with.”
About CHOIR
CHOIR is the leading Dutch knowledge centre in the field of healthcare logistics. Its researchers approach efficiency in healthcare from a mathematical perspective, operating from the conviction that innovations in logistics processes help healthcare institutions to achieve better-quality care through optimal deployment of resources and people.
CHOIR employs and develops a number of methods for this purpose, including:
- Operations research/mathematical decision-making
- Logistics and operations management
- Purchasing management
- Business analytics, information technology and management
In addition to developing innovations in the field of operational management, CHOIR also translates existing innovations from other sectors to healthcare. Examples include information technologies, management principles such as integrated quality assurance and integrated capacity management, and the optimisation of care logistics processes by means of mathematical techniques and simulations.
CHOIR’s research agenda is directly driven by demand from the healthcare sector, and all of its PhD researchers work part-time at healthcare facilities. This allows them to identify practical problems and translate them into new research.
Besides its research activities, CHOIR also focuses on the development of educational content for various target groups inside and outside the university.
To learn more about CHOIR, go to www.utwente.nl/choir.
Contact: r.j.boucherie@utwente.nl
