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Systematic Review of the Use of Computer Simulation Modeling of Patient Flow in Surgical Care

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Abstract

Computer simulation has been employed to evaluate proposed changes in the delivery of health care. However, little is known about the utility of simulation approaches for analysis of changes in the delivery of surgical care. We searched eight bibliographic databases for this comprehensive review of the literature published over the past five decades, and found 34 publications that reported on simulation models for the flow of surgical patients. The majority of these publications presented a description of the simulation approach: 91% outlined the underlying assumptions for modeling, 88% presented the system requirements, and 91% described the input and output data. However, only half of the publications reported that models were constructed to address the needs of policy-makers, and only 26% reported some involvement of health system managers and policy-makers in the simulation study. In addition, we found a wide variation in the presentation of assumptions, system requirements, input and output data, and results of simulation-based policy analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The selection of databases was based on suggestions made by Mimi Doyles, MLIS, an information specialist, and by librarian Robert Stibravy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Population and Public Health, The University of British Columbia, 828 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, Canada, V5Z 1L8

    Boris G. Sobolev

  2. Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, 828 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, Canada, V5Z 1L8

    Victor Sanchez

  3. Clinical Operational Research Unit, University College London, 4 Taviton Street, London, WC1B 0BT, UK

    Christos Vasilakis

Authors
  1. Boris G. Sobolev
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  2. Victor Sanchez
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  3. Christos Vasilakis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Boris G. Sobolev.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 7 MEDLINE search strategy
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Table 8 EMBASE search strategy
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Table 9 INFORMS search strategy
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Table 10 INSPEC search strategy
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Table 11 CINAHL search strategy
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Table 12 MathSciNet search strategy
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Table 13 Web of science search strategy
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Table 14 ACM digital library search strategy
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Sobolev, B.G., Sanchez, V. & Vasilakis, C. Systematic Review of the Use of Computer Simulation Modeling of Patient Flow in Surgical Care. J Med Syst 35, 1–16 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-009-9336-z

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