Hybrid Simulation in Healthcare Applications

HealthcareHealthcare systems are traditionally characterised by complexity and heterogeneity. With the continuous increase in demand and shrinkage of available resources, the healthcareHealthcare sector faces the challenge of delivering high quality services with fewer resources. Decision-makers typically are advised by experts in order to inform their policies and management strategies. One of the tools that is widely used to support evidence-based decisions is modelling and simulationSimulation (M&S). However, the size and complexity of healthcareHealthcare systems constitute the conventional M&S techniques inadequate to model the system as a whole. Hybrid simulationHybrid simulation, that combines one or more of theAgent-Based Simulation agent-based SimulationSimulation (ABS), discrete-event SimulationSimulation (DES) andDiscrete-Event Simulation System DynamicsSystem dynamics (SD) techniques, is employed to enable holistic and detailed analysis of a system and also support model re-use. In this chapter, we discuss the use of hybrid simulationHybrid simulation for emergency medical servicesEmergency Medical Services and pandemic crisis managementPandemic Crisis Management.