Speaker: Michael Beeler
Title: Modeling Complex Healthcare Environments using Discrete-Event Simulation: A Case Study of Mass Immunization Clinics
Date: Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Category: Seminar
Michael Beeler (University of Toronto) provides a non-technical overview of how discrete-event simulation (DES) can be used to understand and manage a wide range of phenomena that are often too complex to study analytically, such as service systems, manufacturing, disease transmission, and information flows. A simulation of a mass immunization clinic is presented to demonstrate how DES can help improve Canada’s healthcare system by helping managers identify opportunities for improvement, conduct stress tests, and explore scenarios that are difficult to pilot on real systems. The usefulness of DES to other public and private sector problems will also be discussed.
Speaker Biography:
Michael Beeler is a graduate student in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. His research applies management science tools to understand and solve problems in the Canadian healthcare sector, including pandemic control, vaccine distribution logistics, and reducing inequities in access to outpatient rehabilitation for strokes and joint surgeries. Michael’s research is funded through three separate CIHR initiatives: the Public Health and Rural Agricultural Ecosystem Training Program, the Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy, and a CIHR Masters Award. Michael holds an HBSc from the University of Toronto in Peace and Conflict Studies, Math and Statistics, and was recently awarded an International Fulbright Science and Technology Scholarship to continue his interdisciplinary research on public service sector modeling and logistics through PhD in Operations Research in the United States.
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