Prof Sally Brailsford
Professor of Management Science, University of Southampton
Sally is chair of the EURO Working Group on OR Applied to Health Services (ORAHS) and Professor of Management Science at the University of Southampton. She has a background in mathematics but also worked for many years in the UK National Health Service as a nurse. Her second career, in academia, began in the late 1980s, and since then she has worked in the area of healthcare operational research (OR), mainly using discrete-event simulation and system dynamics. She has applied both approaches to a wide variety of healthcare-related problems.
Her current research interests include hybrid simulation methods and behavioural OR. She is the only person to have won the UK OR Society's Goodeve Medal three times, for the best paper published in the Journal of the OR Society (JORS) that year: in 2004 for modelling emergency healthcare services in Nottingham, in 2006 for modelling chlamydia infection, and in 2015 for modelling the dental workforce in Sri Lanka. She is a co-Editor-in-Chief of the OR Society journal Health Systems and is on the Editorial Boards of Health Care Management Science, the Journal of Simulation and Health Care Operations Research. In 2016 she was made a Companion of OR by the UK OR Society in recognition of her contribution to health OR.
Prof Margaret Brandeau
Coleman F. Fung Professor in the School Of Engineering and Professor, by courtesy, of Medicine, Stanford University
Margaret L. Brandeau is Coleman F. Fung Professor of Engineering and Professor of Medicine (by Courtesy) at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the development of applied mathematical and economic models to support health policy decisions. Her recent work has examined HIV and drug abuse prevention and treatment programs, programs to control the spread of hepatitis B virus, and preparedness plans for bioterror response.
She is a Fellow of INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and Management Science) and a member of the Omega Rho Honor Society for Operations Research and Management Science. From INFORMS, she has received the Philip McCord Morse Lectureship Award, the President's Award (for contributions to the welfare of society), the Pierskalla Prize (for research excellence in healthcare management science), and the Award for the Advancement of Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences. She has also received the Award for Excellence in Application of Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes Research from the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, among other awards. Professor Brandeau earned a BS in Mathematics and an MS in Operations Research from MIT, and a PhD in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford.
Prof Erwin W Hans
Professor in Operations Management in Healthcare, University of Twente
Erwin W. Hans is a Professor Operations Management in Healthcare with full tenure. He obtained his MSc degree in Applied Mathematics in 1996, specializing in mathematical modeling and operations research. He received his doctorate from University of Twente (UT) in 2001, having studied resource capacity planning with applications in discrete manufacturing and project environments. He now works in the department Industrial Engineering & Business Information Systems and within the research institute CTIT of the University of Twente. He is program director of the Industrial Engineering & Management BSc and MSc program, and board member of the Beta research school for PhD students.
His research focuses on the area of healthcare Operations Management and Operations Research. He co-founded the Center of Healthcare Operations Improvement & Research (CHOIR), the Netherlands' center of expertise in healthcare logistics. He works with several (university) hospitals, and has studied many applications like the operating theatre, ICU, and radiology departments. He supervises several PhD students in hospitals, and gives lectures to healthcare professionals and (all academic levels) students.
Paul Mears
Chief Executive Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Paul Mears joined Yeovil District Hospital as Chief Executive in 2012 having worked in both acute, community and social care services in Torbay, Devon. Prior to joining the NHS Paul worked for a number of years in the private sector holding commercial roles with Eurostar and British Airways as well as working in consultancy.
Since joining Yeovil District Hospital, Paul has been instrumental in developing the Symphony Programme designed to integrate care between the hospital and local primary care practices. The Symphony Programme is a national exemplar as part of NHS England's Vanguard programme and has attracted national and international attention for its innovative approach to integration and the development of a new Accountable Care Organisation model.
Prof Martin Pitt
Director of the PenCHORD
Prof. Martin Pitt is director of PenCHORD - The Peninsula Collaboration for Health Operational Research and Development. PenCHORD (part of the SW CLAHRC in Exeter University: Medical School) is a research team which works in close collaboration with NHS organisations in the south-west of the UK to improve health and care delivery using OR approaches. Martin's early academic background was in psychology, cognitive science and human-computer interaction. He joined Exeter University in 2003 during which time he helped establish and now co-ordinates MASHnet - The UK Network for Modelling and Simulation in Healthcare.
Martin has a long-standing and wide ranging experience in healthcare modelling ranging from economic modelling in health technology assessment to discrete event simulation and operational models for service re-design. His research interests are broadly the application of modelling techniques to improve health and care with a particular interest in the implementation of these approaches to policy and decision making process. He has a specific research focus on use of visualisation techniques to improve the accessibility of information for key stakeholders in the NHS.
Prof Ken Stein
Deputy Director of the PenCLAHRC
Ken is currently Deputy Director of the PenCLAHRC, and in addition to involvement in a range of projects being carried out within PenCLAHRC, has Executive responsibility for the PenCLAHRC Evidence Synthesis Team and the Peninsula Collaboration for Operational Research and Development (PenCHORD). Alongside his work at UoE, he is Chair of the Editorial Board for Health Technology Assessment a monograph series within the NIHR Journals Library and member of one of NICE's Technology Appraisals Committees.
Ken graduated in medicine from University of Bristol in 1987, then trained and worked as a general practitioner in Australia and Hampshire before specialising in public health medicine in Southampton, where he subsequently became Deputy Director, NETSCC, HTA. In 1999 he began work as a Consultant in Public Health Medicine at North and East Devon Health Authority, then Director of Public Health for Mid Devon Primary Care Trust. Ken combined this NHS work with academic work at the University of Exeter as founding Director of the Peninsula Technology Assessment Group (PenTAG), becoming a full time academic at Exeter in 2003. Ken was appointed to a Chair in Public Health in 2007.
Prof Martin Utley
Professor Operational Research & Director Clinical Operational Research Unit, University College London
Martin Utley is Professor of Operational Research and Director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at University College London, where he has worked since completing a PhD in Particle Physics in 1996. Over this time, he has worked closely with clinicians in a variety of specialties including pediatric cardiac surgery, rheumatology, thoracic surgery and intensive care.
His current research interests are in providing clinical teams with tools to monitor outcomes and to understand flows of patients through inter-connected health services. In addition to his role at UCL, Martin is Researcher-in-Residence at Care City, an innovation centre focused on healthy ageing in North East London.