Relevant conferences

Aim and Scope Health and Social Care systems are undergoing major changes worldwide, due in part to changes in demography and in part to increased competition between parts of the system whether they are hospitals, primary care trusts, or general practitioners. Yet running health and social care systems efficiently and effectively is crucial to improving or even maintaining our quality of life. Over the years, extensive research has been conducted to find immediate and long-term solutions to issues that are routinely faced by health and social care management professionals, such as waiting lists and bed capacity, hospital redesign, workforce planning and scheduling, patient flow modelling, performance management, disease monitoring, and health care technology assessment. Simulation and modelling techniques (statistical analysis, stochastic processes, queuing theory, mathematical programming, heuristics, discrete event simulation, system dynamics, etc) have shown to be increasingly valuable in providing useful information to aid planning and management. The aim of the conference is to bring together health care managers, clinicians, management consultants, and mathematicians, operational researchers, statisticians, economists, computer scientists etc from across the world with a view to bridging the gap between the communities and to exploring recent developments and identifying fruitful avenues for further research. The Venue Mary Ward House is a fascinating Grade 1 listed building built in 1898 and financed by the wealthy philanthropist Passmore Edwards. It lies in the heart of London's Bloomsbury, an area reputed for its pubs, restaurants, and cultural activities, within ten minute walk from the British Museum and the British Library, and benefits from excellent transport links. Further information can be found at the venue website - www.marywardhouse.com.

Call for Papers: The MSOM Society and its Special Interest Group (SIG) in Healthcare Operations Management invite researchers, clinicians, and healthcare executives to attend and participate in an international workshop focused on cutting-edge issues at the interface (broadly defined) between healthcare and operations management. The workshop will be held at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel on Sunday, June 27, 2010. The workshop will be followed by the two-day MSOM conference. The number of healthcare papers presented at INFORMS conferences has increased dramatically over the last five years. Many of these presentations involve concepts and/or tools from the field of operations management. This will be the first INFORMS-related conference devoted to this important interface. We expect to attract faculty, clinicians, and healthcare executives from a wide variety of academic departments, as well as from a large number of countries. We encourage interested colleagues to submit ideas, suggestions, and three-page (non-technical) extended abstracts to lkendrick@rhsmith.umd.edu between now and the submission deadline. We look forward to welcoming you in Israel in June. Bruce Golden, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, Workshop Co-Chair Matthew Liberatore, School of Business, Villanova University, Workshop Co-Chair Avi Seidmann, Simon School of Business, University of Rochester, SIG President Yale T. Herer, The Technion, MSOM Conference Chair Haifa, Israel June 27, 2010 ~ ~ Key Dates Submission deadline: February 8, 2010 (Monday) Review deadline: March 15, 2010 (Monday) Notification of acceptance: April 12, 2010 (Monday)

Aim of the conference: The most difficult part of making decisions in the health care is linked to the high complexity of the system itself, to the intrinsic uncertainty involved and to its dynamic nature. This requires not only the ability to analyze and understand a large amount of information but also to arrange that information for a cognitive base for adequate decision making. Operational Research, like other methods of statistical and economicrelated quantitative analysis, supplies these decision making tools and methodology. They are especially useful in the health care field where various actors (health care providers, administrative personnel, policy makers, companies, industries) should make coordinated and responsible decisions aimed at providing quality services to citizens in a complex, decisionmaking environment that encompasses clinical needs, economic goals, ethical considerations, limited resource constraints, fast change and uncertain outcomes.

POMS’ College of Healthcare Operations Management Mini Conference 2010 Vancouver, BC, Canada Thursday May 6, 2010 The 2010 Mini-Conference of POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management will be held on May 6th, 2010 in Vancouver, BC, Canada, prior to the POMS 2010 Meeting. The focus of the workshop will be on applications of operations management, and the dialog between healthcare professionals and OM scholars. For more details and the agenda of the mini-conference, please visit http://www.poms.org/2008/07/2010_miniconference_announceme.html The conference will also include a poster presentation of healthcare operations management research in order to provide a platform for presenting research and connecting people with similar research interests. For more details of poster presentations, please visit http://www.poms.org/2008/07/call_for_poster_presentations.html We look forward to seeing you at the mini-conference. Beste Kucukyazici MIT Zaragoza International Logistics Program

The conference is operational research forum which brings together academics and practitioners from around the world with an opportunity to discuss current issues in an informal setting. The ICAOR 2010 conference will take place at Åbo Akademi University in the city of Turku, Finland. We invite you to join your colleagues for this international meeting.