The Health Systems Research Group is a group of management scientists who share an interest in developing and applying Operational Research, Operations Management, and Information Systems methods and theories, quantitative and qualitative, to important health systems issues.

Whilst the health systems research issues tackled are wide and varied, many of them relate to the general challenges of helping health systems to make better use of available resources in terms of both improving efficiency and improving patient experiences. Much of it concerns elements of knowledge transfer, be it between researchers and practitioners, between industry and healthcare, or between the health systems of different countries.

Research is undertaken in various modes, including longer-term research via PhD, Research Council-funded projects, and NHS R&D-funded projects, and shorter-term research via Master's student projects and consultancy projects. This mix of research modes means that shorter-term projects designed to meet fast-moving organisational timescales can be informed by ongoing research and expertise, whilst longer-term research can benefit from genuine experience of the real issues faced within health systems. Examples of MRes/PhD research and Master's projects can be accessed below.

A number of these people are also involved in collaborations with colleagues in other LUMS departments via the Centre for Health Futures or in multi-disciplinary projects across the University via the Health Innovation Campus.

Interested PhD candidates would typically have some knowledge of health systems and strong knowledge of some area of management science. Research topics and methodology can then be tailored to meet the needs and interests of the candidate and the interests and expertise of potential supervisors, for example:

• performance management
• waiting list management
• impacts of spatial factors on health service delivery
• health systems improvement
• systems that transform patients-provider communication
• systems to support health promotion planning
• modelling patient flows in healthcare
• Optimisation, analysis and simulation of Bayesian designs of adaptive clinical trials

Previous and ongoing PhD projects:

• Empathic Design for Healthcare Improvement, M. Al Khatani (2008)
• The Diffusion of Operations Research in Management Decision Making - An Analysis of U.S. Healthcare Organisations, J. Langabeer (2009)
• Generic simulation modelling of Accident and Emergency patient flows in acute hospitals in England, A. Fletcher (2012)
• An Agent-Based Model of the IL-1 Stimulated Nuclear Factor-kappa B Signalling Pathway – Richard Williams, University of York (2015)
• The development and application of an analytical healthcare model for understanding and improving hospital performance, D. Suen (2016)
• Managing radiotherapy treatment trade-offs using multi-criteria optimisation and data envelopment analysis, K-M Lin (2016)
• Online Discrete Event Simulation for the Management of Inpatient Beds (Ongoing)
• Bayesian Bandit Models for the Optimal Design of Clinical Trials (ongoing)
• Stakeholder saliency dynamics in strategic ICT projects in the Saudi public healthcare system: appreciative systems perspective, T. Al-Ghaith (2013)

Recent MSc projects:

• Developing a generic simulation model for NHS England to better understand hospital bed occupancy by time of day and its impact on A&E performance.
• Prostate cancer pathway modelling for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust
• Discrete Event Simulation of patient pathways for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment for Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
• Modelling the emergency response service in Blackpool Division for North West Ambulance Service
• Strategic and operational modelling for Day Case services at the Lancashire Cardiac Centre
• Analysing A&E services at Hillingdon Hospital – identifying the drivers of 4-hour breaches
• Cost-effectiveness study of Ventricular Assist Devices for Warwick Evidence HTA Centre
• Investigating a phased approach to the possible implementation of the FRG formula for funding general practices for the Department of Health
• Modelling clinical pathways for strokes for PenCHORD, University of Exeter

If you have any queries you wish to discuss, please contact Dr Dave Worthington, and if you would like to apply for a PhD, please visit our PhD in Management Science.

Our research is impact-oriented and connects to national and international policy agendas.

Group members engage with relevant stakeholders to conduct research that links operations and supply chain management to contemporary grand challenges such as sustainability and climate change, decent work, innovation, productivity and economic growth, and reduced inequalities. Specifically, we boast internationally-recognised research expertise in the following areas:

• Environmental and social sustainability in global supply chains
• Supply chain resilience, risk management and cybersecurity
• Technology and innovation in operations and supply chains
• Servitisation of manufacturing and service-based business models
• Production planning and control

The group maintains particularly strong links with colleagues specialising in Operational Research applications (e.g. transport planning and supply chain forecasting) and Information Systems aspects of supply chain management. We also work closely with colleagues across the School and in other Faculties and interdisciplinary Research Centres e.g. the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business.

Current research activities

• Sustainability in supply chains: Lancaster is internationally-leading in this area and hosted the 2016 EurOMA Sustainability Forum. Linda Hendry and Mark Stevenson have a particular interest in socially sustainable sourcing (e.g. to combat modern slavery). Linda is currently involved in a UKRI-funded project seeking ways to reduce plastic packaging in food supply chains. Quyhn Do is working on circular economy concepts and applications in food supply chains, and Lingxuan Liu studies climate change-linked supply chain disruptions and how to mitigate these.
• Supply chain resilience and risk management: Mark Stevenson studies supply chain resilience in multiple settings (e.g. product counterfeiting). Anas Iftikhar is particularly interested in how supply chain complexity interacts with resilience, while Yiyi Fan focuses on how and when organisations can manage supply chain risks (e.g. cybersecurity risks) and build resilience into their supply chains. Nonhlanhla Dube and Kostas Selviaridis investigate how procurement and contracting practices can promote resilience in medicine supply chains, as part of their Norwegian Research Council-funded project on measures to improve availability of medicines and vaccines. Nonhlanhla is interested in resilience strategies more broadly, including in the context of humanitarian operations and logistics. Sunil Banga is, among other things, studies resilience in healthcare supply chains and has recently developed a research-led teaching case in this area.
• Technology and innovation in operations and supply chains: Martin Spring is studying the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in professional service operations (e.g. law and accounting), with his work attracting ESRC funding and international interest. Steve Eldridge researches how technology and digitalisation help transform business operations within firms and along the supply chain. Kostas Selviaridis is interested in how novel products and services, including those developed by technology-intensive SMEs, can be effectively contracted for and integrated in supply chains, and the role of public policy in this respect.
• Servitisation of manufacturing and service-based business models: Martin Spring and Kostas Selviaridis lead on this theme, which encompasses manufacturers’ ‘shift to service’ (servitisation) and its implications along the supply chain, service-based business models and performance-based contracting.
• Production planning and control: The Lancaster group has been central to the development of workload control for many years, an approach to management and planning of make-to-order manufacturing companies that introduces efficiencies and improvements in business productivity. Linda Hendry and Mark Stevenson lead in this area, and their work has influenced many researchers in German, Dutch, Italian, Greek, North American and Portuguese universities and research institutes. Sebastian Schiffels is studying, among other things, sales and operations planning and inventory management decisions with a focus on behavioural aspects.

If you have any queries you wish to discuss, please contact Kostas Selviaridis. If you would like to apply for a PhD, please visit our PhD in Management Science.