Serious games for sustainable development

Sustainable development (SD) is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the subsequent generations to cater to their future needs (Brundtland, 1987). An ecologically balanced environment, long-term economic well-being, and social equity are commonly regarded as the triple bottom line (TBL) of SD. Effective management of the TBL requires the adoption of SD practices (Pope, Annandale, & Morrison- Saunders, 2004). The concepts of SD and the TBL have emerged as a major focus for the society because of factors such as the depletion of natural resources, changes in demographics, and a push toward a more equitable society. To achieve the goals of TBL, we will need the right attitude and managerial skills to examine these challenges holistically (Savitz, 2006), and the adoption of courses and degrees focusing on SD will play an important role in the curriculum of intermediate and higher education (Cotton, Warren, Maiboroda, & Bailey, 2007). The focus of this review is the use of serious games (SGs), designed with a primary purpose other than pure entertainment, as a tool to teach SD

A game-based approach towards facilitating decision making for perishable products: an example of blood supply chain

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Expert Systems with Applications. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 41, Issue 9, July 2014, Pages 4043–4059 doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2013.12.038Supply chains for perishable items consist of products with a fixed shelf life and limited production/collection; managing them requires competent decision-making. With the objective of placing the learners in the position of decision-makers, we propose the Blood Supply Chain Game which simulates the supply chain of blood units from donors to patients based on a real case study modeling the UK blood supply chain. The Excel-based game is an abstraction of the technical complex simulation model providing a more appropriate learning environment. This paper presents the game’s background, its mathematical formulations, example teaching scenarios and the learners’ evaluation. The game aims to translate qualitative aspects of a sensitive supply chain into quantitative economic consequences by presenting a process analysis and suggesting solutions for the patient’s benefit in a cost effective manner, trying to synchronize blood demand and supply and maximize the value of the whole supply chain. This innovative approach will be instructive for students and healthcare service professionals

Exploring the modelling and simulation knowledge base through journal co-citation analysis

“The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1136-zCo-citation analysis is a form of content analysis that can be applied in the context of scholarly publications with the purpose of identifying prominent articles, authors and journals being referenced to by the citing authors. It identifies co-cited references that occur in the reference list of two or more citing articles, with the resultant co-citation network providing insights into the constituents of a knowledge domain (e.g., significant authors and papers). The contribution of the paper is twofold; (a) the demonstration of the added value of using co-citation analysis, and for this purpose the underlying dataset that is chosen is the peer-reviewed publication of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS)—SIMULATION; (b) the year 2012 being the 60th anniversary of the SCS, the authors hope that this paper will lead to further acknowledgement and appreciation of the Society in charting the growth of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) as a discipline

SCS: 60 years and counting! A time to reflect on the Society's scholarly contribution to M&S from the turn of the millennium.

The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS) is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Since its inception, the Society has widely disseminated the advancements in the field of modeling and simulation (M&S) through its peer-reviewed journals. In this paper we profile research that has been published in the journal SIMULATION: Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation International from the turn of the millennium to 2010; the objective is to acknowledge the contribution of the authors and their seminal research papers, their respective universities/departments and the geographical diversity of the authors' affiliations. Yet another objective is to contribute towards the understanding of the overall evolution of the discipline of M&S; this is achieved through the classification of M&S techniques and its frequency of use, analysis of the sectors that have seen the predomination application of M&S and the context of its application. It is expected that this paper will lead to further appreciation of the contribution of the Society in influencing the growth of M&S as a discipline and, indeed, in steering its future direction

Rethinking health systems strengthening: key systems thinking tools and strategies for transformational change.

While reaching consensus on future plans to address current global health challenges is far from easy, there is broad agreement that reductionist approaches that suggest a limited set of targeted interventions to improve health around the world are inadequate. We argue that a comprehensive systems perspective should guide health practice, education, research and policy. We propose key 'systems thinking' tools and strategies that have the potential for transformational change in health systems. Three overarching themes span these tools and strategies: collaboration across disciplines, sectors and organizations; ongoing, iterative learning; and transformational leadership. The proposed tools and strategies in this paper can be applied, in varying degrees, to every organization within health systems, from families and communities to national ministries of health. While our categorization is necessarily incomplete, this initial effort will provide a valuable contribution to the health systems strengthening debate, as the need for a more systemic, rigorous perspective in health has never been greater

Facilitating the analysis of a UK national blood service supply chain using distributed simulation

In an attempt to investigate blood unit ordering policies, researchers have created a discrete-event model of the UK National Blood Service (NBS) supply chain in the Southampton area of the UK. The model has been created using Simul8, a commercial-off-the-shelf discrete-event simulation package (CSP). However, as more hospitals were added to the model, it was discovered that the length of time needed to perform a single simulation severely increased. It has been claimed that distributed simulation, a technique that uses the resources of many computers to execute a simulation model, can reduce simulation runtime. Further, an emerging standardized approach exists that supports distributed simulation with CSPs. These CSP Interoperability (CSPI) standards are compatible with the IEEE 1516 standard The High Level Architecture, the defacto interoperability standard for distributed simulation. To investigate if distributed simulation can reduce the execution time of NBS supply chain simulation, this paper presents experiences of creating a distributed version of the CSP Simul8 according to the CSPI/HLA standards. It shows that the distributed version of the simulation does indeed run faster when the model reaches a certain size. Further, we argue that understanding the relationship of model features is key to performance. This is illustrated by experimentation with two different protocols implementations (using Time Advance Request (TAR) and Next Event Request (NER)). Our contribution is therefore the demonstration that distributed simulation is a useful technique in the timely execution of supply chains of this type and that careful analysis of model features can further increase performance

Analysing the supply chain of blood in the U.K. using simulation

This PhD thesis is concerned with analysing the supply chain of blood products within the UK National Health Service.  The objective of the study is to improve procedures and outcomes by modelling a vertical part of the chain from donor to recipient.  The supply chain of blood products is broken down into material flows, information flows and cost analysis.  Discrete event simulation is used to determine ordering and inventory policies leading to reductions in shortages and wastage, increased service levels, improved safety procedures and reduced costs, by employing better system-wide coordination. In this study the system is examined, the construction of the model and its inputs are described and evaluated, the performance criteria are determined and results are presented from several simulation experiments.  Representative small, medium and big size hospitals (in terms of blood consumption) are individually examined in separate models with one blood centre and one hospital.  The best combination of policies for all the different size hospitals is determined from the set of tested scenarios.  The model is then expanded to incorporate all the three characteristic hospitals, and to observe the relationships as the hospitals compete for resources from the blood centre in a more realistic environment.  Transportation, redistribution and transhipment policies are tested in the expanded model to check the impact of these practices on the key criteria.  The model execution time problems which arise with the expansion of the model are resolved through the use of distributed simulation; a new, advanced simulation technique whose scope and potential is shown through a feasibility study which was carried out for the purposes of this thesis.</p

Analysing the supply chain of blood in th U.K. using simulation

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Cost-effective practices in the blood service sector

Objectives The objective of this study is to recommend alternative policies, which are tested on a computer simulation model, towards a more cost-effective management of the blood supply chain in the UK.Methods With the use of primary and secondary data from the National Blood Service (NBS) and the supplied hospitals, statistical analysis is conducted and a detailed discrete event simulation model of a vertical part of the UK supply chain of blood products is developed to test and identify good ordering, inventory and distribution practices.Results Fewer outdates, group substitutions, shortages and deliveries could be achieved by blood banks: holding stock of rare blood groups of red blood cells (RBC), having a second routine delivery per weekday, exercising a more insensitive ordering point for RBC, reducing the total crossmatch release period to less than 1.5 days, increasing the transfusion-to-crossmatch ratio to 70%, adhering to an age-based issuing of orders, holding RBC stock of a weighted average of approximately 4 days.Conclusions The blood supply simulation model can offer useful pieces of advice to the stakeholders of the examined system which leads to cost reductions and increased safety. Moreover, it provides a great range of experimental capabilities in a risk-free environment.

Investigation of the attitudes of medical/nursing staff and patients towards nurse prescribing

Introduction: Prescribing by specialized nurses is an expanded role, already successfully performed in many countries. Purpose: Recording preferences and comparing the views of medical staff, nurses and patients, towards the prescribing of specialized higher education nurses. Methodology: This is a quantitative study, conducted in two public hospitals, including 200 nurses, 200 medical staff and 200 patients. The designed questionnaire for data collection included demographic data of patients, medical staff and nurses and questions for nurses’ prescription. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS statistical package 20. Results: One hundred forty-eight questionnaires were collected from patients 107 from medical staff and 183 from nurses. The results showed that once becoming legal in our country patients (38%), to a greater percentage, would prefer qualified nurses to prescribe commonly used drugs, while medical staff (42.2%) and nurses (45.4%) would prefer nurses not to prescribe new drugs but to be able to change the time or the dosage of a medication. Also the patients (44.9%), to a greater percentage, would prefer their nurses to prescribe medical supplies and diagnostic exams and refer patients to other health professionals, while the other two groups showed a positive preference only to the prescription of health materials (56.1% physicians and 45.9% nurses). Regarding the question of whether the prescribing of higher education nurses could contribute to faster and more efficient patient access to medicines, the majority of patients (51.4%) and nurses (47.6%) are in favor, but the medical staffs disagree. Conclusions: Patients’ attitudes were more positive in all aspects of prescribing compared to those of nurses and medical staff. The redefinition of the nurse’s role can help maintain a satisfactory level of healthcare services with fewer financial resources without being considered “quasi-doctors”, but as nurses with extended scope of practice who contribute to the healthcare system in different ways