18th March 2008

Email this Page |

Clinicians, social care experts, healthcare managers, mathematicians and computer scientists from around the world gathered in Northern Ireland this week to discuss ways of making healthcare more efficient and more cost effective. 

They were attending the 2nd International Conference on Health and Social Care Modelling of the UK Nosokinetics Group hosted by the University of Ulster at the Ramada Hotel in Portrush. 

Professor Sally McClean, Professor of Mathematics at Ulster, who co-chaired the conference along with Professor Peter Millard of St George’s, University of London, said: “We are very pleased to be able to host this important event that will discuss ways of using models from Mathematics and Computer Science to make healthcare more efficient and more cost-effective. The aim is to develop solutions that cost less and benefit the patients more”.

Delegates came from the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Sweden and they exchanged ideas, examined current modelling trends and issues and developed new solutions and research directions to improve patient and client care. 

A wide range of Informatics techniques were covered during the three day conference, including control theory, optimal flow, workforce planning, location and demand modelling, queueing theory and artificial intelligence in the context of their use to improve diverse areas of health and social care.  

These include: hospital occupancy and patient flows, liver transplant, autism, care of Alzheimer’s patients, management of traumatic brain injury, community healthcare facilities, neonatal care and stroke disease. 

Keynotes speakers included:  

-Professor Thierry Chaussalet, University of Westminster (Modelling Length of Stay – Real Benefits or Waste of Time?),

 

-Professor Don Campbell, Monash University (Application of Operations Research to Inpatient Medical Care: learning from standing on the shoulders of giants),

 

-Dr Ken Fullerton, Queens’ University Belfast and Belfast City Hospital (Why does Healthcare need Modelling?),

 

-Professor Gary Harrison, College of Charlston, USA (Hospital Patient Flows and Short Term Occupancy Prediction),

 

-Professor Peter Millard, St. George’s, London (Nosokinetics: A personal odyssey), and

 

 -Professor Terry Young, Brunel University (So, where do simulation and modelling fit in?).

  

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk