Research Interests: Business, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Resource Allocation, System Dynamics, and 10 morePolicy Analysis, Decision support system, Business and Management, Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Hiv Infection, Cost effectiveness, World Health Organization, Drug Therapy, Numerical Analysis and Computational Mathematics, and Control Management
Research Interests:
With 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS worlwide, this pandemic has had devastating impacts on the social, economic, and demographic structure of many developing countries. Over 70% of the world's HIV-infected live in Africa.... more
With 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS worlwide, this pandemic has had devastating impacts on the social, economic, and demographic structure of many developing countries. Over 70% of the world's HIV-infected live in Africa. Thus, implementing cost-effective prevention programs, such as short-course anti-retroviral treatment for pregnant mothers and their offspring, are critical issues for healthcare providers in these countries. We have developed the first published discrete event simulation model to support policy makers in this area. In this paper, we analyze screening programs and Nevirapine treatment (assumed to be effective up to three months after delivery). These prices might not be affordable for developing countries, but if sponsor organizations covered the educational costs, the programs could be achievable and would even save money.
Research Interests:
Using a discrete-event simulation (DES) model, the current disaster plan regarding the allocation of multiple injured patients from a mass casualty incident was evaluated for an acute specialty hospital in Vienna, Austria. With the... more
Using a discrete-event simulation (DES) model, the current disaster plan regarding the allocation of multiple injured patients from a mass casualty incident was evaluated for an acute specialty hospital in Vienna, Austria. With the current resources available, the results showed that the number of severely injured patients currently assigned might have to wait longer than the medically justifiable limit for lifesaving surgery. Furthermore, policy scenarios of increasing staff and/or equipment did not lead to a sufficient improvement of this outcome measure. However, the mean target waiting time for critical treatment of moderately injured patients could be met under all policy scenarios. Using simulation-optimization, an optimal staff-mix could be found for an illustrative policy scenario. In addition, a multiple regression model of simulated staff-mix policy scenarios identified staff categories (number of radiologists and rotation physicians) with the highest impact on waiting tim...
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Public Health, Medicine, Hepatitis C, and 10 morePolicy Analysis, Business and Management, Psychological Intervention, Cost effectiveness, Public health interventions, Cost Saving, Numerical Analysis and Computational Mathematics, Dynamic Modelling, Transmission Mechanism, and dynamic model
Abstract This study presents a non-linear optimisation model for investigating the optimal allocation of both budgets and inpatients with different treatments among hospitals within a geographic region such as Vienna. The objective... more
Abstract This study presents a non-linear optimisation model for investigating the optimal allocation of both budgets and inpatients with different treatments among hospitals within a geographic region such as Vienna. The objective function maximises the overall quality of ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Information Systems, Marketing, Computer Science, Information Technology, Logistics, and 15 moreEnvironmental Health, Management Science, Forecasting, Developing Countries, Economic Development, Health, Health Policy, Breastfeeding, Developing Country, Childbirth, Investment, Discrete Event Simulation, Location, Communications Technology, and HD
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Austrian Society for Operations Research (Oesterreichische Gesellschaft fuer Operations Research, OEGOR) was founded at the Vienna University of Technology in 1978. OEGOR is a nonprofit scientific organization, which supports... more
The Austrian Society for Operations Research (Oesterreichische Gesellschaft fuer Operations Research, OEGOR) was founded at the Vienna University of Technology in 1978. OEGOR is a nonprofit scientific organization, which supports application and promotes development of operations research (OR) methods with particular focus on efficient knowledge transfer among high-profile scientific research and decision makers in all areas. Hereby, our working groups play a key role in metaheuristics, OR in finance, OR in health care, production and logistics, theory and practice of optimization, and mathematical economics and optimization in energy. As a nationwide association, OEGOR also represents Austria in the international network of OR experts such as the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) and the International Federation of Operational Research Societies (IFORS). In the past, several major Austrian OR conferences were organized in cooperation with fellow societies such as: (i) Vienna, OR 1990, and (ii) Klagenfurt, OR 2002. A European Summer Institute (ESI) on nonlinear methods in combinatorial optimization for EURO will be held at the University of Klagenfurt in September 2010. OEGOR cooperates with fellow societies from Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia to edit and finance the SCI-indexed journal, Central European Journal of Operations Research (CEJOR), which is published by Springer. Keywords: OEGOR; CEJOR; OR 1990; OR 2002; EURO Summer Institute 2010; EURO; IFORS
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Hospital management games have gained importance in better planning for scarce resources in times of growing health care demand and increasing technology costs. We classify and investigate the main characteristics of these games from an... more
Hospital management games have gained importance in better planning for scarce resources in times of growing health care demand and increasing technology costs. We classify and investigate the main characteristics of these games from an Operations Research (OR) perspective. Hospital management games model the complex decision making process of internal resource, process, and financial management all influenced by the external
Research Interests: Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, Decision Making, Operations Research, and 10 moreHealth Care, Central European history, Financial management, Central European Studies, Business and Management, Job Market, Purchasing, Decision making process, Operations Research/ Optimization Techniques, and Numerical Analysis and Computational Mathematics
Research Interests:
MOTIVATION Occupational injuries cause short-term, direct costs as well as long-term follow-up costs over the lifetime of the casualties. Due to shrinking budgets accident insurance companies focus on cost reduction programmes and... more
MOTIVATION Occupational injuries cause short-term, direct costs as well as long-term follow-up costs over the lifetime of the casualties. Due to shrinking budgets accident insurance companies focus on cost reduction programmes and prevention measures. For this reason, a decision support system for consequential cost calculation of occupational injuries was developed for the main Austrian social occupational insurance institution (AUVA) during three projects. METHODS This so-called cost calculation tool combines the traditional instruments of accounting with quantitative methods such as micro-simulation. The cost data are derived from AUVA-internal as well as external economic data sources. Based on direct and indirect costs, the subsequent occupational accident costs from the time of an accident and, if applicable, beyond the death of the individual casualty are predicted for the AUVA, the companies in which the casualties are working, and the other economic sectors. RESULTS By using this cost calculation tool, the AUVA classifies risk groups and derives related prevention campaigns. In the past, the AUVA concentrated on falling, accidents at construction sites and in agriculture/forestry, as well as commuting accidents. Currently, among others, a focus on hand injuries is given and first prevention programmes have been initiated. Hand injuries represent about 38% of all casualties with average costs of about 7,851 Euro/case. Main causes of these accidents are cutting injuries in production, agriculture, and forestry. Beside a low, but costly, number of amputations with average costs of more than 100,000 Euro/case, bone fractures and strains burden the AUVA-budget with about 17,500 and 10,500 € per case, respectively. CONCLUSION Decision support systems such as this cost calculation tool represent necessary instruments to identify risk groups and their injured body parts, causes of accidents, and economic activities, which highly burden the budget of an injury company, and help derive countermeasures to avoid injuries. Target-group specific, suitable prevention measures for hand injuries can reduce accidents in a cost-effective way and lower their consequences.
Research Interests: Medicine and Gynecology
Research Interests:
Health care systems need to be resilient to deal with disasters like the global spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) on top of serving the changing needs of a multi-morbid, ageing and often dispersed... more
Health care systems need to be resilient to deal with disasters like the global spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) on top of serving the changing needs of a multi-morbid, ageing and often dispersed population. This paper identifies, discusses and augments critical dimensions of resilience retrieved from the academic literature. It pulls together an integrated concept of resilience characterised by organisational capabilities. Our concept does not focus on the micro-level like most resilience literature in health care but addresses the system level with many stakeholders involved. Distinguishing exogenous shocks to the health care system into adverse events and planned innovations provides the basis for our conclusions and insights. It becomes apparent only when dealing with planned interventions that transformative capabilities are indispensable to cope with sudden increases in health care pressures. Due to the current focus on absorptive and ad...
Emergency decision makers face a challenge taking rapid and high-risk decisions during an emergency situation, especially when the emergency is cross-border and requires multi-agency cooperation. The emergency decision makers use... more
Emergency decision makers face a challenge taking rapid and high-risk decisions during an emergency situation, especially when the emergency is cross-border and requires multi-agency cooperation. The emergency decision makers use emergency management (EM) system and sometimes decision support systems (DSS) when responding to a crisis. To date the emergency decision makers have not had access to a system that supports them in all facets of the full EM cycle. This paper describes work in progress designing and building a comprehensive system of systems that intend to be that support for emergency decision makers. The system has successfully demonstrated its value from a technical and user perspective. Future tests will demonstrate if it will enhance decision management in reality-based emergency scenarios.
Research Interests:
Aufgrund der demographischen Entwicklung und Uberalterung der Gesellschaft ruckt das Pflegepersonal von Krankenanstalten immer mehr in den Mittelpunkt personalwirtschaftlicher Entscheidungen in Hinblick auf Rekrutierung, Weiterbildung,... more
Aufgrund der demographischen Entwicklung und Uberalterung der Gesellschaft ruckt das Pflegepersonal von Krankenanstalten immer mehr in den Mittelpunkt personalwirtschaftlicher Entscheidungen in Hinblick auf Rekrutierung, Weiterbildung, Bindung und gegebenenfalls Entlassungen. Die hohe Fluktuation von Beschaftigten im Pflegebereich signalisiert ein Scheitern, dieses Personal in der eigenen Organisation halten zu konnen.
Research Interests:
We investigated the benefit of a 6-week ambulant psychiatric rehabilitation program in an ambulant psychiatric rehabilitation clinic in Vienna, Austria, from January 2014 to December 2016 by an uncontrolled repeated measures study. The... more
We investigated the benefit of a 6-week ambulant psychiatric rehabilitation program in an ambulant psychiatric rehabilitation clinic in Vienna, Austria, from January 2014 to December 2016 by an uncontrolled repeated measures study. The potential of this intervention program was assessed by effectiveness and cost measures using suitable statistical analyses. We compared the effectiveness and cost measures of this ambulant psychiatric rehabilitation program on patients for the period of up to 12 months after discharge to the period of 12 months before admission to the intervention program based on self-reported catamnesis questionnaires. For the program’s effectiveness measures, we accounted for both psychological indices for measuring depression severity, symptom burden, and functioning to document the health improvement of patients and economy-related indices such as the number of sick leave days for patients. For the program’s cost measures, both direct tangible treatment and medic...
Research Interests:
In spite of advanced therapies and the success of additional prevention programs, the HIV/AIDS epidemic still remains a challenge. Our paper refers academics, health care managers, and policy makers to the relevance of AIDS policy... more
In spite of advanced therapies and the success of additional prevention programs, the HIV/AIDS epidemic still remains a challenge. Our paper refers academics, health care managers, and policy makers to the relevance of AIDS policy simulators in better decision-making. By highlighting the types of decisions AIDS policy models can support, we demonstrate the strategic role of AIDS policy simulators for
Research Interests: Decision Making, Health Policy, Health Care Management, Policy making, Humans, and 10 moreComputer Simulation, Decision support systems for natural resources management, Austria, Public health systems and services research, Statistical models, Organizational Efficiency, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Health Resources, Model simulation, and HIV infections
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This articles provides a short summary of the research topics and latest research results of the European Working Group “Operations Research Applied to Health Services” (ORAHS) organized as an e-conference in Juli 2020 at the University... more
This articles provides a short summary of the research topics and latest research results of the European Working Group “Operations Research Applied to Health Services” (ORAHS) organized as an e-conference in Juli 2020 at the University of Vienna, Austria (https://orahs2020.univie.ac.at/). Furthermore, challenges for OR in health care including application areas, decision support systems, general trends, and modelling techniques are briefly illustrated from an European and international perspective by providing selected essential literature reviews.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Decision Making, Health Policy, Health Care Management, Policy making, Humans, and 8 moreComputer Simulation, Decision support systems for natural resources management, Austria, Public health systems and services research, Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, Health Resources, Model simulation, and HIV infections
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... Discrete-event simulation (DES) has been widely used as a modelling approach, especially for modelling ... S6derlund et a1'7 applied a discrete-time Markov chain simulation to ... Dynamic compartmental epidemic models... more
... Discrete-event simulation (DES) has been widely used as a modelling approach, especially for modelling ... S6derlund et a1'7 applied a discrete-time Markov chain simulation to ... Dynamic compartmental epidemic models based on the system dynamics (SD) approach have been ...
Research Interests: Information Systems, Marketing, Computer Science, Information Technology, Nutrition, and 15 moreLogistics, Management Science, Forecasting, Developing Countries, Economic Development, Health, Health Policy, Operational Research, Developing Country, Investment, Mathematical Sciences, Mathematical Model, Discrete Event Simulation, Location, and Communications Technology
Research Interests:
Hospital management games have gained importance in better planning for scarce resources in times of growing health care demand and increasing technology costs. We classify and investigate the main characteristics of these games from an... more
Hospital management games have gained importance in better planning for scarce resources in times of growing health care demand and increasing technology costs. We classify and investigate the main characteristics of these games from an Operations Research (OR) perspective. Hospital management games model the complex decision making process of internal resource, process, and financial management all influenced by the external
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Bericht von dem internationalen Workshop der Österreichischen Arbeitsgruppe „Operations Research in Health Care“ und der Deutschen GOR-Arbeitsgruppe „Optimization of Biosystems“ an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz im Mai 2006.