Health Care Applications Track 3, Health Care - Monday
9:10am-10:00am
Portfolio Management Methods in a Competitive Pharmaceutical Industry Jack M. Kloeber, Jr., PhD, Senior Partner, Kromite, US Army (retired); and Michele E. Pfund, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, Supply Chain Management, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University
New product development involves inherent risks in the development process itself as well as uncertainty of acceptance in the marketplace. This is especially true for the pharmaceuticals industry where the cost of developing a drug is reaching a billion dollars or more. This tutorial will introduce the audience to the process of portfolio management of pharmaceutical R&D projects. The methodology of assessing a drug’s probability of technical and regulatory success and subsequent value to the organization will be discussed along with the methods of deciding which projects (internal pipeline as well as available external projects) to continue based upon financial constraints, business goals, scientific, medical, manufacturing, regulatory and marketplace dependencies. This talk will highlight not only key analytical tools and methods that are used within portfolio management but will also discuss key business issues such as tie-in with the business planning cycle, database design, importance of communication and pitfalls to avoid.
10:30am-11:20am
Using Operations Research for Health Human Resource and Long-Term Care Capacity Planning Martin L. Puterman, PhD, Advisory Board Professor of Operations; Research Director, UBC Centre for Health Care Management; Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Operations research has been widely used to improve health systems operations in areas such as surgical scheduling, emergency room operations and ambulance deployment. However, OR methods can also be used to inform and support health systems planning decisions. This presentation describes two such studies. The first develops a linear programming model to plan the British Columbia registered nurse and nurse management workforces. The second uses simulation, survival analysis and simulation optimization to determine long-term care capacities that achieve service level targets. Even though the methodologies differed, each study developed decision support tools to enable planners to carry out scenario and what-if analysis.
11:30am-12:20pm
Microbes, Medicines and Math: Applying Operations Research to Global Health Justin M. Cohen, PhD, Senior Research Associate, Center for Strategic HIV Operations Research (CSHOR), Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, Clinton Foundation
In global health, operations research is a term often used to describe program evaluations or pilot studies, rather than applied mathematics. The obstacles of sparse data, weak reporting systems and finite resources have limited the application of classical OR to global health, yet myriad issues related to the complexities of delivering healthcare to people in under-resourced settings can be best addressed by utilizing conventional business strategy frameworks. In this talk, Cohen will present the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative’s perspective on key challenges in global health that could be addressed through the use of practical OR. He will describe some of the work of the Center for Strategic HIV Operations Research, which works to analyze complex problems in HIV, malaria and tuberculosis treatment related to resource planning and allocation, develop and apply pragmatic tools and models, and help provide the forward vision required to make difficult decisions in resource-limited settings.
2:00pm-2:50pm
OR Research in Health Care Planning and Policy Making Michael W. Carter, PhD, Professor, Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto
Operations research has enjoyed some moderate success in the health care industry for a number of operational level problems, typically looking at a specific department of one institution. However, if we really want to make a difference in health care, we need to address large-scale policy questions that affect all institutions in a city, a region or a country. This is easier said than done. In this talk, Carter will describe a few recent examples of applications of a variety of operations research methods for health care policy issues. Examples include the location of cancer treatment facilities, surgical waitlist management and forecasting demand for health human resources. Although the applications are primarily Canadian, the approaches generalize to most systems.
3:30pm-4:20pm Bradley N. Doebbeling, MD, MSc, Director, Indiana University Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research; Associate Director, Regenstrief Institute, Inc., Indianapolis
Health Care Presentations in Other Tracks
Track 4, Supply Chain Management – Monday 10:30am-11:20am
Lessons Learned from the Implementation of a Logistics Deployment Decision-Support System at Pfizer: Preparing for Network Uncertainties Tan Miller, PhD, Harper Professor of Global Supply Chain Management, Director of the Global Supply Chain Management Program, College of Business Administration, Rider University
To manage a large-scale distribution network effectively, a firm must have a decision support system (DSS) that supports strategic, tactical and operational decisions. In this presentation, Miller will describe a DSS implementation at Pfizer that supported daily logistics inventory deployment and shipping decisions across the firm’s entire US consumer healthcare network. Pfizer Logistics developed this DSS in response to a sudden large increase in inventory on the firm’s consumer healthcare network – an unforecast buildup that quickly surpassed the storage capacities of the US distribution network. The rapid development of this DSS allowed Pfizer to maintain high customer service levels while operating with 50% of its inventory in off-site, overflow DC locations. Miller will discuss how its long-standing commitment to DSS systems positioned Pfizer to respond quickly to these short-term crisis conditions. He will highlight this system’s methodologies that have general applicability to other firms, and provide an overview of the complete logistics DSS implemented at Pfizer over approximately ten years.
Track 12, Decision Analysis – Tuesday 9:10am-10:00am
Transforming the Culture of Strategic Decision-Making for a Leading Biotech Organization Phillip C. Beccue, Director of Strategy and Portfolio Management, Baxter BioScience
New product development in pharmaceutical and biotech companies is characterized by large investments, long time-horizons, portfolio interdependencies and numerous sources of uncertainty and risk. The Strategy and Portfolio Management Group at Baxter has addressed these challenges in the past five years through the rollout of decision analysis principles and processes. The targeted application of rigorous analytics has helped to shape the company’s strategic direction and meet financial targets. The group’s success in transforming the decision-making culture at Baxter emanated from a triumvirate of training, tools and tales of successful projects. In this session, Beccue will discuss how these contributions helped to better link the group’s actions to shareholder value. Participants will learn how:
• A “Value-based Decision-making” course has raised awareness, transferred skills and provided a common language.
• A web-based portfolio tool has helped to standardize business cases for investments and focused on drivers of value.
• A participatory game with different bets and real cash payouts drove home analytical results and achieved consensus among an opinionated leadership team.
11:30am-12:20pm
DA Framework for a Recurring Strategy Problem in Life Sciences: Post Patent Transition Jeff L. Fraser, MBA, President, Growth Options LLC
In this blended case study, Fraser will discuss the application of a decision analysis framework for a complex, recurring strategy problem using a chimera of three projects on products going off patent in three different life science industry segments. The presentation has a very practical, best-practice orientation for decision analysts, with insights and learnings in the following areas.
• The nature of the issues and complexity of post patent transition,
• Example strategic decisions considered as part of post-patent strategy;
• General guidance and pitfalls for overall strategy development;
• Structural, logical and practical challenges and solutions to create a credible and useful representation of this broad problem class, with particular emphasis on identifying and clarifying “core market logic” as the foundation;
• Example benefits to other critical, ad hoc, follow-on decisions.
