INFORMS introduces health care conference

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS, www.informs.org) will introduce a new, highly focused brand of conference next year with a three-day meeting on the health sector, aimed at bringing health care researchers and stakeholders together. INFORMS Healthcare 2011 will be held June 20-22 at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel in Montreal, Canada. The conference will combine the deep research focus of a traditional INFORMS meeting with an emphasis on real-world application that distinguishes the INFORMS practitioner conference.

General Chair Vedat Verter, professor of Operations Management at McGill University, has formed an Organizing Committee of respected OR/MS professionals, including Diwakar Gupta from University of Minnesota, Beste Kucukyazici of MIT-Zaragoza, Eva K. Lee of Georgia Tech and Sergei Savin of The Wharton School.

The preliminary list of sponsored clusters includes INFORMS communities such as the Health Applications Section and MSOM-SIG on Healthcare Operations Management, as well as several key societies outside INFORMS. The Canadian Operational Research Society, IIE Health Systems Society, POMS College of Health care Operations Management and the EURO working group on Operational Research Applied to Health Services are among the organizations participating in the program.

In addition, invited clusters on topics such as medical decision-making, computational optimization, putting IE/OR into practice and other current topics are being organized. With presentations by researchers and practitioners from the United States, Canada, Europe and around the world, the conference will offer a cross-cultural view of health care systems.

In order to ensure high-quality presentations, all submissions will be reviewed. Authors are invited to submit in a choice of formats – either for oral presentation or for interactive poster sessions – and must submit a two-page extended abstract, as well as a 50-word summary, by Feb. 1, 2011.

Several structured networking techniques that are popular at the INFORMS practitioner conference will be incorporated into the program. Birds-of-a-feather discussion groups will focus on defined topics, and networking tables facilitated by conference organizers will encourage exchange.

The conference venue, the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel, is an urban resort with 2-plus acres of rooftop gardens, right in the heart of downtown Montreal. The discounted INFORMS hotel rate of $185 includes Internet access, heated pool and fitness club.

For complete information and to submit an abstract, visit: http://meetings2.informs.org/ healthcare2011/.