Introduction to Operations Research

Course Director: Nathaniel Hupert, MD, MPH

Every component of health care delivery, from patient scheduling and bed management to information utilization and logistics, is amenable to improvement using approaches based on operations research (OR), the branch of engineering that calls itself “the science of better.”  This course will introduce students to key concepts and methods in OR, including queuing theory, simulation, and optimization.  Applications using common spreadsheet software and/or free online modeling applications will be emphasized.  Student teams will then use these tools to design an efficient, high-performance outpatient clinic.