We have two excellent plennary sessions scheduled and an exciting panel discussion. For more information see below.
As healthcare systems face increasing pressure to deliver high-quality care efficiently, operations research (OR) offers powerful tools for driving innovation and enhancing system performance. In this keynote, we will explore how advanced OR methodologies and data analytics can transform healthcare delivery through practical case studies, including resource scheduling and allocation. We will also examine some critical questions such as: Does innovation in hospitals align with innovation in OR? And what are the key elements that drive meaningful change? While we may not have definitive answers, we will share insights and lessons learned that can help shape the discussion.
Nadia Lahrichi holds a PhD in applied mathematics from Polytechnique Montréal. She is currently a full professor at the department of Mathematics and industrial engineering at Polytechnique Montreal and the codirector of CIRRELT. Her research is mainly focused towards applying modeling and operational research tools to improve patient flow in the healthcare system. She uses exact, metaheuristics and discrete event simulation approaches to tackle patient and resource scheduling problems. She has published more than 50 papers in peer reviewed journals and received the award for outstanding application of operational research (from the Canadian Operational research society) for solving the home health care routing and scheduling problem.
She is an associate editor of Health Care Management Science and Operations research for Health Care. She co-organized multiple international conferences such as Optimization Days, Odysseus, NOW and ORAHS.
As healthcare strives to meet patients' needs with high quality and accessibility, operations research (OR) offers opportunities to streamline and improve healthcare processes. In this keynote, we will explore how data-driven organizational development and strategic planning can transform healthcare delivery through practical examples from Karolinska University Hospital. We will discuss critical questions such as: How can we ensure optimal use of healthcare resources? While we may not have all the answers, we will share insights and experiences that can help shape future discussions.
Lina Grännö holds a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linköping University, with a specialization in logistics. She is currently the Head of Planning and Follow-up at Karolinska University Hospital, where she is responsible for the hospital's production and scheduling as well as quality monitoring. Her work focuses on creating tools and processes that help staff optimize capacity utilization and meet patient needs. Lina has extensive experience in data-driven organizational development, organizational change, and leadership within politically governed organizations. She has also been instrumental in the implementation of the hospital's BI tool and the unified scheduling tool for all clinical operations.
Lina's work at Karolinska University Hospital is directly linked to the goals and objectives of ORAHS, where systematic and quantitative analysis is used to support planning and management in the healthcare sector. The goal for her department is to ensure that frontline managers have easy access to data to enable data-driven decisions when they lead, guide, and develop their respective operations. Lina's efforts contribute to improving healthcare efficiency and quality, and her experiences provide valuable perspectives on how OR can inspire and support changes in healthcare. By promoting cross-border collaboration, innovative solutions to complex challenges can be developed.
The panel will discuss the main challenges faced by the healthcare sector, and how innovation can enable better services in the coming years. Then, we will narrow down into OR-innovations and what specific challenges that these can target, and discuss how to increase the presence of OR practitioners in healthcare. The panelists represent different actors, including academia, business consulting, primary care and specialist care, and they will elaborate on the topics from their different points of view. Before the discussion, each panelist will give an introduction on how their institution or company promotes innovation and OR in the public healthcare today.
Jarl Reitan is an innovation advisor at the service innovation centre (Tjenesteinnovasjonssenteret - TIPS) at St. Olavs Hospital. He specialises in service design, innovation management, development of patient pathways, and remote medical follow-up. Since 2004, he has worked with innovation in the public sector and has led major national competence development projects.
Birger Endreseth is the Medical Director at St. Olavs Hospital, where he is responsibe for strengthening and coordinating the professional healthcare development. He holds and MD and PhD, and is a specalist in general surgery and gastrointestinal surgery. Previously, he served as senior consultant and clinic director at the Surgical Clinic at St. Olavs Hospital.
Gréanne Leeftink is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Healthcare Operations Improvement and Research (CHOIR) at the University of Twente. She is affliated with Isala Hospitals, where she works closely with practitioners on topics related to connected care and integral capacity management. Gréanne obtained her PhD on integrated planning in cancer care, in collaboration with UMC Utrecht and Mayo Clinic. She has over ten years of experience in research, eduction and consulting.
Kjartan Klyve leads KPMG Norway’s work in Healthcare Optimization and Analytics, where he spearheads the design and implementation of advanced Operations Research tools in healthcare settings. He holds a PhD in Operations Research from his time at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and has a strong history of applying optimization and algorithmic techniques to real-world scheduling problems in hospitals.
Øystein Døhl has a background as a social economist with a PhD in health economics. He is currently the financial manager at Trondheim Municipality and a researcher at NTNU. Øystein has over 20 years of experience with the use of health data for analysis and strategic planning of municipal health services. His research areas have been the economic evaluation of long-term follow-up of patients after treatment. His current field of academic interest is how municipalities can prepare for the major demographic changes in the coming 15-20 years.
