Healthcare Operations Lab

Healthcare Operations Lab (HealthORLab) is an interdisciplinary research lab that focuses on problems related with healthcare services delivery from public health, medical decision making, operations management and data analytics  perspectives.

Our current research at HealthOR Lab focuses on the following projects that focus on delivery of chronic care, supported by funding from AXA Research Fund:

  • Effects of the operational environment on physician decision making: We investigate how non-clinical operational factors affect clinical decisions of health professionals using patient visit data from a rheumatology outpatient clinic in Europe. We focus particularly on the decision to follow-up or discharge a patient and re-attendance of discharged patients. (Zehra Önen, Tolga Tezcan, Raj Sengupta, Evrim Güneş)
  • Capacity management for chronic care delivery: We aim to understand the  the impact of follow-up interval and capacity on the appointment delay data from a rheumatology outpatient clinic with the aim of optimising capacity planning and management. (Zehra Önen, Tolga Tezcan, Raj Sengupta, Evrim Güneş)
  • Medical decision making for diabetes care: We aim to develop mathematical models to gain insights on the best timing of therapy change and follow-up appointments. (Zehra Önen, Erkam Minsin, Hakan Kılıç, Evrim Güneş)
  • Understanding and predicting patient engagement: We collected data on patient activation measure and health behaviours as well as primary care access measures from a sample of patients with diabetes and/or hypertension in Turkey. We aim to understand the interdependencies between these factors. (Sibel Sakarya, Emrah Doğan, Şeyma Görçin, Ercan Kulak, Serap Çifçili, Mehmet Akman, Lerzan Ormeci, Evrim Güneş).
  • Appointment systems with Strategic Walk-ins: We analyse a clinic which allocates part of its capacity to walk-in patients, who are strategic decision makers (Feray Tunçalp, Lerzan Örmeci, Evrim Güneş).
  • Managing primary care practices under CPC+: CPC+ is a new payment scheme in the US, offered to primary care practices to better manage chronic patients. We investigate the effect of this scheme on operations of a primary care practice. (Lerzan Ormeci, Hessam Bavafa, Ali Mete Özbek, Evrim Güneş).
  • Disaster response planning for chronic dialysis patients: We collaborate with the Turkish nephrologists to develop models to deliver service to chronic dialysis patients after a disaster. (Burcu Balçık, Cem Deniz Bozkır, Serhan Tuğlular, Evrim Güneş)
  • Managing care for complex patients: We use patient engagement and health needs to define patient complexity and model optimal service level decisions using MDP framework (Our Demiray, Odysseas Kanavetas, Lerzan Örmeci, Christos Vasilakis, Evrim Güneş).

Other work in progress includes projects on:

  • Home health care planning
  • Informal care systems for long term care

Researchers

Faculty Members:

  • Evrim Güneş, Assoc Prof of Operations Management
  • Lerzan Örmeci, Prof of Industrial Engineering

Research Assistants:

  • Zehra Önen (post-doctoral researcher)
  • Hakan Kılıç (PhD student in IEOM program at Koç University)
  • Erkam Minsin (research assistant)
  • Feray Tunçalp (PhD student in IEOM program at Koç University)
  • Cem Deniz Bozkır (research assistant)
  • Ali Mete Özbek (PhD student in IEOM program at Koç University)
  • Onur Demiray (MS student in IEOM program at Koç University)