Aisha Naseer

Simulation in manufacturing and business: A review

This paper reports the results of a review of simulation applications published within peer-reviewed literature between 1997 and 2006 to provide an up-to-date picture of the role of simulation techniques within manufacturing and business. The review is characterised by three factors: wide coverage, broad scope of the simulation techniques, and a focus on real-world applications. A structured methodology was followed to narrow down the search from around 20,000 papers to 281. Results include interesting trends and patterns. For instance, although discrete event simulation is the most popular technique, it has lower stakeholder engagement than other techniques, such as system dynamics or gaming. This is highly correlated with modelling lead time and purpose. Considering application areas, modelling is mostly used in scheduling. Finally, this review shows an increasing interest in hybrid modelling as an approach to cope with complex enterprise-wide systems.

Simulation in health-care: lessons from other sectors

This paper compares the results of broad-range literature reviews over the period 1997–2006 on the application of simulation in three sectors: commerce, defence, and health-care. The main purpose of these reviews is to see whether there are lessons to learn from the first two sectors to be applied in the health-care sector. Results of our reviews show that, simulation has been commonly used in the three sectors; however, there is clear evidence of lack of consistency in the level of implementation. More specifically, healthcare lags behind the other two sectors, particularly in terms of stakeholder engagement and, consequently, in terms of implementation of simulation outcomes. This paper provides key insights into some challenges in applying simulation methods in healthcare, whilst presenting an up-to-date “big picture” of simulation in three main sectors from an academic point of view.

Cross‐sector analysis of simulation methods: a survey of defense and healthcare

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to see whether it is possible to learn any lessons from the application of simulation and modeling in the defense sector to be applied in the healthcare sector.Design/methodology/approach – Two comprehensive reviews are conducted within two domains of “Military & Aerospace” and “Healthcare”. A general search framework with common features is developed, while allowing rooms for customization for each domain. A common objective is set to cover a wide scope of simulation methods and application areas. Further, reviews are not restricted to a limited number of journals or conferences; rather the relevant databases are searched while using some filtering mechanisms.Findings – It is found that simulation has been commonly used in the defense sector(s). However, inconsistency in terms of the level of implementation in both the sectors is quite vivid. There is clear evidence that healthcare lags behind other sector(s), particularly in terms of stakeholder engagement and, con...

Development of modelling method selection tool for health services management: From problem structuring methods to modelling and simulation methods

BackgroundThere is an increasing recognition that modelling and simulation can assist in the process of designing health care policies, strategies and operations. However, the current use is limited and answers to questions such as what methods to use and when remain somewhat underdeveloped.AimThe aim of this study is to provide a mechanism for decision makers in health services planning and management to compare a broad range of modelling and simulation methods so that they can better select and use them or better commission relevant modelling and simulation work.MethodsThis paper proposes a modelling and simulation method comparison and selection tool developed from a comprehensive literature review, the research teams extensive expertise and inputs from potential users. Twenty-eight different methods were identified, characterised by their relevance to different application areas, project life cycle stages, types of output and levels of insight, and four input resources required (time, money, knowledge and data).ResultsThe characterisation is presented in matrix forms to allow quick comparison and selection. This paper also highlights significant knowledge gaps in the existing literature when assessing the applicability of particular approaches to health services management, where modelling and simulation skills are scarce let alone money and time.ConclusionsA modelling and simulation method comparison and selection tool is developed to assist with the selection of methods appropriate to supporting specific decision making processes. In particular it addresses the issue of which method is most appropriate to which specific health services management problem, what the user might expect to be obtained from the method, and what is required to use the method. In summary, we believe the tool adds value to the scarce existing literature on methods comparison and selection.

Resource discovery in Grids and other distributed environments: States of the art

The emerging Grid technologies hold out the promise of a global information channel that is far more powerful and uniquely distinct from the existing internet framework. This paper addresses the issue of resource discovery in Grids and aims to review the current state-of-the-art and provide an up-to-date taxonomy of existing Grid resource discovery methods. The various resource discovery methods, techniques and approaches are critically discussed, and recommendations are made with respect to practical implementation and directions of future research in Grid resource discovery.

A rapid review method for extremely large corpora of literature: Applications to the domains of modelling, simulation, and management

While literature reviews with a large-scale scope are nowadays becoming a staple element of modern research practice, there are many challenges in taking on such an endeavour, yet little evidence of previous studies addressing these challenges exists. This paper introduces a practical and efficient review framework for extremely large corpora of literature, refined by five parallel implementations within a multi-disciplinary project aiming to map out the research and practice landscape of modelling, simulation, and management methods, spanning a variety of sectors of application where such methods have made a significant impact. Centred on searching and screening techniques along with the use of some emerging IT-assisted analytic and visualisation tools, the proposed framework consists of four key methodological elements to deal with the scale of the reviews, namely: (a) an incremental and iterative review structure, (b) a 3-stage screening phase including filtering, sampling and sifting, (c) use of visualisation tools, and (d) reference chasing (both forward and backward). Five parallel implementations of systematically conducted literature search and screening yielded a total initial search result of 146 087 papers, ultimately narrowed down to a final set of 1383 papers which was manageable within the limited time and other constraints of this research work.

Three critical challenges for modeling and simulation in healthcare

By most measures, the adoption of modeling and simulation techniques in healthcare service development falls well short of the uptake of such techniques evident in other sectors, such as business and commerce or aerospace and the military. The question is, why? To answer this, we consider three questions and then turn to the nature of answer which might lead towards greater adoption. The first is the vexed question of how good is good enough? The second concerns how best modeling should link through to decision-making; and the third concerns the culture needed to make the most of modeling and simulation (and whether it is worth the effort to make the transformation). From these, we draw an agenda for further enquiry in terms of stakeholders, their culture, data, and expectations, and the case in terms of value.

Web-Services-Based Resource Discovery Model and Service Deployment on HealthGrids

HealthGrids represent the next generation of advanced healthcare IT and hold the promise to untangle complex healthcare-data problems by integrating health information systems and healthcare entities. Healthcare could benefit from a new delivery approach using HealthGrids to better meet the biomedical and health-related needs. Specialized services are needed to provide unified discovery of and ubiquitous access to available HealthGrid resources. The different types of services available on HealthGrids are classified into two levels, the operational-level services and the management-level services. This paper takes a fresh approach to address the problems of resource discovery in HealthGrids based on Web services (WS) and WS technologies and proposes a WS-based resource discovery model.

RIGHT: A toolkit for selecting healthcare modelling methods

A project to take simulation and modelling techniques to healthcare practitioners in the form of a ‘selection tool’ is reported. We describe the processes by which a tool to enable decision-makers to select appropriate methods has been conceived, prototyped, and taken to a variety of users. Findings are drawn from a variety of sources including the internal discussion among the teams from the five collaborating universities, the observational findings as healthcare practitioner users set about using the tool and the results of internal conferences with stakeholders. While the project to produce a robust and reliable tool requires considerably more time and resource, the preliminary findings indicate that there is still a robust discussion over which methods to include on the menu list of such a tool, and that there is an appetite for an accessible introduction to modelling methods. Moreover, it appears that different stakeholders are looking to specify their problem in different ways. Nonetheless, there is evidence of an emerging interest in using such tools more widely and routinely.

Integrated care development using systems modelling: a case study of intermediate care

In recent years more focus has been placed on integrated health and social care services within most western countries. Despite the reported importance of this area, it has not been explored enough in simulation research. Current modeling methods of healthcare systems focus on compartmentalized and specific specialties, such as emergency room modeling. Integrated care services, on the other hand, come with increased complexity, which makes it even more difficult for traditional modeling approaches to capture the desired level of detail. This article aims at identifying lessons for modeling complex integrated healthcare systems by presenting a case of intermediate care development using modeling. The main observations indicate that the involvement of stakeholders in a collaborative modeling should take precedence over model accuracy. Also iterative modeling is the most viable way to approach such systems; and that modelers should possess more skills than those needed for technical skills.