Strategies for a lasting impact in healthcare: from day-to-day operations to policy
Stefan Nickel, KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany
Institute of Operations Research
Discrete Optimization and Logistics (dol.ior.kit.edu)
Executive Director FZI (www.fzi.de/LSO)
Director KSRI (ksri.kit.edu)
VP EURO-IFORS
stefan.nickel@kit.edu
Healthcare involves both medical and logistical activities. While medical professionals are responsible for designing medical aspects, Operations Research (OR) can offer quantitative decision support for designing logistical processes. This enables OR to influence individual decisions and contribute to policy development. Achieving this impact requires integrating several key elements. Communication with stakeholders is essential for gaining insights into healthcare systems and establishing trust in OR models. Real-world data is necessary to build accurate models, which, in turn, can guide the collection of relevant data. The models must be adapted to comply with differing, local legislation while aligning with the overarching goals of healthcare systems. This adaption can also lead to the development of novel OR models. Decisions and their impact on care quality and economic factors are the driving force and structuring element for developing models and prioritising research and implementation efforts. Bringing these elements together can be achieved through virtual planning environments such as discrete event simulation. Built on real-world data, they can be used to communicate with stakeholders, validate OR models, and understand the interdependence of decisions. Drawing on an ongoing project focused on emergency medical services, this talk will showcase concepts, models, and insights illustrating how OR can make a tangible impact and influence legislative changes.
Short bio
Prof. Dr. Stefan Nickel (born in 1966) studied business mathematics at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, where he completed his doctorate in mathematics in 1995 and his habilitation in 1999.
While still working on his habilitation, he moved to the newly founded Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics (ITWM) in Kaiserslautern and had the opportunity to work with large and medium-sized companies on research-related tasks. Until March 2016, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fraunhofer ITWM in Kaiserslautern.
From April 2003 to March 2009, Stefan Nickel held a professorship at the Chair of Operations Research and Logistics at Saarland University. Since April 2009, he has been co-heading the Institute for Operations Research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) along with Prof. Dr. Oliver Grothe, Prof. Dr. Steffen Rebennack, and Prof. Dr. Oliver Stein. From October 2014 to September 2016, Stefan Nickel was Dean of the Faculty of Economics at KIT.
Furthermore, since January 2011, he has been serving as the Director at the Karlsruhe Service Institute (KSRI) and also as the Director at the Research Center for Information Technology (FZI) in Karlsruhe. Additionally, he has been a board member at the Research Center for Information Technology since 2023.
From 2006 to the end of 2015, Stefan Nickel was Editor-in-Chief of the internationally renowned journal Computers & Operations Research. Since January 2016, he has been Editor-in-Chief of “Operations Research for Health Care”.
Stefan Nickel also headed the Society for Operations Research (GOR) from January 2013 to December 2014.
Since 2019 Stefan Nickel has been the Vice President of IFORS in the EURO Executive Committee and member of the Advisory Committee of IFORS.
For his article “Facility Location and Supply Chain Management” Stefan Nickel and his colleagues received the EURO Award 2012 of the Association of European Operational Research Societies (EURO) and for the most cited EJOR article 2007-2011 he received the Elsevier Prize.
Stefan Nickel’s research and teaching focuses on location planning, territory planning, supply chain management, health care and online optimization. He received the teaching award in 2016 for outstanding teaching, particularly in the courses “Tactical and Operational Supply Chain Management” and “Location Planning and Strategic Supply Chain Management”.
He has authored or co-authored 13 books and more than 180 scientific articles in his research areas. In addition, he has carried out several industry projects with well-known companies such as BASF, Lufthansa, Miele and SAP.