Officers of the INFORMS Health Applications Section 2 - 3

Message from the Outgoing President 4

Message from the Vice President, Incoming President 5

Member News 6

INFORMS Philadelphia Meeting 7

William Pierskalla Award for Best Paper, rules and judging 7 – 8

International Meetings (IFORS-Beijing) 8

Reminder: FREE COPY Health Care Management Science Journal 9

Miscellaneous, (Faculty Position, Health Sciences Simulation Conference) 9 - 10

Call for Abstracts 12

8711 Chippendale Ct.

Annandale, VA 22003-3807

Work Phone: (703) 978-5030

E-mail: dsamuel@seas.gwu.edu

Office Term Expiring 12/31/1999

H. David Sherman

Accounting Group

College of Business Administration

Northeastern University

Boston, MA

Work Phone: (617) 373-4640

Fax : (617) 373-8814

E-mail: hsherman@lynx.neu.edu

Office Term Expiring 12/31/99

Timothy W. Butler

Dept. of Finance and Business Economics

School of Business Administration

Detroit, MI 48202

Work Phone: (313) 577-4802

Fax : (313) 577-0058

Office Term Expiring 12/31/99

Vivian Valdmanis

University of Oklahoma

Dept. of HAP PO Box 26901th Admin & Policy

Oklahoma City, OK 73190

Work Phone: (405) 271-2114

Fax : (405) 271-1868

E-mail: vivian-valdmanis@uokhsc.edu

Office Term Expiring 12/31/2000

Jon Chilingerian

Brandeis University

Box 9110 Heller School MS035

Waltham, MA 02254-9110

Work Phone: (781) 736-3828

Fax : (781) 736-3985

E-mail: chilingerian@binah.cc.brandeis.edu

Office Term Expiring 12/31/2001

Sophie Lapierre

Dept of Mathematics & Industrial Engineering

Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal

Montreal, QC H3C 3A7

Canada

Work Phone: (514) 340-4711 ext. 5852

Fax : (514) 340-4173

E-mail: sophiel@crt.umontreal.ca

WEB Site: http://www.crt.umontreal.ca/~sophiel/

Office Term Expiring 12/31/2000

Yasar A. Ozcan

Williamson Institute for Health Studies

P.O. Box 980203

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, VA 23298-0203

Work Phone: (804) 828-5224

Fax : (804) 828-1894

E-mail: ozcan@hsc.vcu.edu

Office Term Expired 12/31/1998

David L. Zalkind

2731 N. Norwood St.

Arlington, VA 22207-5344

Work Phone: (202) 994-5735

Fax : (202) 994-4068

E-mail: dlz@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu

Office Term Expired 12/31/1997

Vicki Smith-Daniels

College of Business

Arizona State University

Tempe, AZ 85287-4206

Work Phone: (602) 965-6473

Fax : (602) 965-5539

E-mail: vicki.smith-daniels@asu.edu

Office Term Expired 12/31/1996

Farrokh Alemi

Health Administration Program

George Mason University and

George Washington University

E-mail: falemi@osf1.gmu.edu

Office Term Expired 12/31/1995

Charles Shasky

Williamson Institute for Health Studies

P.O. Box 980203

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, VA 23298-0203

Work Phone: (804) 550-0415

Fax : (804) 828-1894

E-mail: cshasky@hsc.vcu.edu

Office Term Expiring 12/31/1999

Results of the officer elections and the vote on the best paper initiative will be announced at our annual HAS meeting in Philadelphia. There are also two initiatives I would like to include on the agenda: 1) discussion of a student paper or dissertation competition; and 2) developing a warehouse of course syllabi of health care operations research, management science, quality improvement, information technology and related topics on the HAS web site. Please be sure to attend the meeting to provide your ideas, and send me any other agenda items you wish to include in the meeting (potth001@tc.umn.edu).

The annual meeting is on Monday November 8, 6:15-7:15, Room 411 of the Philadelphia Marriott. I've ordered wine, soft drinks and the usual assortment of hotel cheese and crackers. In addition to being a wonderful time to reacquaint yourself with your colleagues, I have an added bonus when you attend this year. I have acquired two items that can only be found in Minnesota, and if you are lucky, parts of Wisconsin and the Dakotas. Two lucky HAS annual meeting attendees will be randomly selected to receive these rare door prizes!

I would like to remind our members to consider Health Care Management Science as a publication outlet for your research. The journal is in existence largely because of the efforts of Yasar Ozcan, and the first two years' issues have been exceptional. The journal is also looking to expand its cadre of referees, so please take the time to complete and return the form in this newsletter. Yasar also continues to serve as the Ansel Adams* of our section (have camera, will travel). Thank you Yasar.

I would also like to remind our members that students and newly minted Ph.D.'s beginning their academic careers will greatly benefit from HAS. Active participation in HAS enables young researchers to demonstrate commitment to the field of health care operations research through service to our section, and develop a network of senior colleagues who become familiar with their research. The tenure clock ticks fast, and before you know it, it's time to find external reviewers to critique your research contributions to the field, as well as assess your service and teaching. I know I was thankful this past year for the wonderful senior colleagues I have met through my participation in HAS (the tenure vote was positive). Please encourage your students and new faculty to present at HAS sponsored sessions and become active members of HAS. One can become a member of HAS without being a member of INFORMS, although we also encourage INFORMS membership.

I have enjoyed serving the section these past two years as Vice-President and President. The reins are being turned over to Doug Samuelson, and I can assure you that all present and newly elected officers are Y2K compliant. See you in Philly.

For your information, I’m a consultant in the Washington, D.C. area, specializing in information systems design and evaluation in outcomes research, both with emphasis on health care applications. Over the past two years, my biggest client has been the Bureau of Health Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense. They are, understandably, most interested in portability and standardization of patient records and related information systems issues. The U.S. Department of Defense is also trying, along with everyone else, to improve evaluating treatments, treatment settings, and to wrestle with issues of cost containment.

Thanks to my predecessors, we have an excellent program at Philadelphia that carries our section’s impressive history of providing good sessions on a variety of topics. I’d like to add even more variety next year, especially in the areas of health policy, outcomes assessment, medical informatics, and special applications. These topics could involve mental health, substance abuse, and long-term care. These topics are, in my view, especially important and need the kinds of system-level insights OR/MS INFORMS-HAS members can provide.

I strongly encourage you to contribute to this process. We need suggestions for future sessions, preferably accompanied by some willingness to contact people and ask them to speak. We also need volunteers to review articles for our journal, Health Care Management Science, and good submissions for it. Please utilize the accompanying referee submission form to get involved. Email me at dsamuel@seas.gwu.edu, or call me at (703) 978-5030. I look forward to seeing many of you at our sessions and business meeting in Philadelphia. The other officers and I welcome your comments and participation at any time.

Ann van Ackere has accepted a position of Professor of Decision Sciences at HEC Lausanne (Switzerland). At present she is 'commuting' between the two, and will be moving permanently at the end of March.

Farrokh Alemi Ph.D. has left Cleveland State University and joined programs at George Mason University and George Washington University. His email address is falemi@osf1.gmu.edu.

Mark Isken has left Henry Ford Health System and joined the faculty of Oakland University. His new addresses and phone numbers are: Mark Isken, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Decision and Information Sciences, School of Business Administration, Oakland University, Rochester, MI 48309. email: isken@oakland.edu; www:http://www.sba.oakland.edu/isken/isken.htm; phone: (248) 370-3296;

fax: (248) 370-4275

Liam O'Neill, Ph.D. is now at Cornell University as Assistant Professor of Health Systems Policy Analysis and Management. His new addresses and phone numbers are: N132 MVR Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401. Phone: 607-255-1948; Office: N 229 MVR Hall ; Fax: 607-255-4071; E-Mail: lo22@cornell.edu

Sandra Potthoff received tenure this past year in the Department of Healthcare Management in the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. She then proceeded to do something more stressful and was married in August. She highly recommends the Cook Islands in the South Pacific as a wonderful vacation spot.

Along with Tamara Stone (University of Missouri) and Seema Sonnad (University of Michigan), Sharon Schweikhart (Ohio State University) has been awarded a grant from the Center for Health Management Research. The title of the project is "Organizational Factors Influencing Use of Clinical Practice Guidelines."

Sheryl L. Szeinbach, Ph.D., formerly Associate Professor of Pharmacy Administration and Management and Marketing, at the University of Mississippi, is now Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Pharmacy Practice and Administration at Ohio State University, College of Pharmacy, 500 W. 12th St., Columbus, OH 43210-1291. E-mail: Szeinbach.1@osu.edu.

Yasar A. Ozcan was promoted to Professor effective July 1, 1999. Additionally, he is also serving as the Director of International Development for Virginia Commonwealth University since July 1997. Yasar A. Ozcan received an international partnership grant sponsored by USAID/AIHA to develop MHA/MPH and Ph.D. programs at School of Kazakhstan Public Health, Almaty, Kazakhstan. He and his team of colleagues already made several trips to Almaty to conduct the activities for program development.

Sophie Lapierre is a co-investigator on a 3 year grant project ($195,000/year), on "The Impact of a Standardized Information System Between the Emergency Department and the Primary Care Network: Effects on Continuity and Quality of Care," along with Marc Afilalo, principal investigator, Director of Emergency Services, General Jewish Hospital, Montreal. This project is financed primarily by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation. She also went, last May, to Yaoundé, Cameroon, to teach a two-week introductory course on basic operations management applied to the wood industry. She has experience in the manufacturing of furniture. This program was part of a masters program in the manufacturing of wood products, sponsored by the "Agence Universitaire Francophone" for Africans in Central Africa. She also taught this course last year and states it was a wonderful experience. This exemplifies the versatility of INFORMS-HAS members ability to perform in a variety of challenging topics!

HAS Section Meeting: Monday November 8, 6:15-7:15. Room 411 of the Philadelphia Marriott. Wine, cheese, and soft drinks will be provided. A random drawing will be held to award two meeting attendees with a mystery door prize. See you there!

http://www.crt.umontreal.ca/~sophiel/health/

Don’t forget to prepare to attend one or more of the following meeting(s)!

•INFORMS Philadelphia November 99 meeting information, registration, and synopsis, can be seen on the WEB site: http://www.informs.org/Conf/Philadelphia99/

This is part of the INFORMS Fall 1999 Meeting and programs to be held in Philadelphia, PA on November 7-10, 1999 at the Philadelphia Marriott Hotel. Details can be found at the above mentioned website. Sandra Potthoff is heading a Health Section Cluster of presentation and discussion. Additional co-chairs include;

Arnold Reisman, Co-chair

02126.1551@compuserve.com

Reisman & Associates

1284428 Parkland Dr.

Shaker Heights, OH 33122

216-561-1763

and,

Elie Geisler, Co-chair

Geisler@ix.netcom.com

847-864-7512

Fax: 847-491-1563

Papers submitted to this cluster should provide a lively forum for debate. An additional cluster presents papers framed in the analytical technique of Data Envelopment Analysis. This will be headed by;

Lawrence M. Seiford

Seiford@ecs.umass.edu

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

University of Massachusetts

219 ELAB, Box 32210

Amherst, MA 01003-2210

413-545-1658

Fax: 413-545-1027

Rules:

1. Eligibility for prize is limited to papers presented at the Fall INFORMS meeting in a session sponsored by the Health Applications Section, beginning in the fall of 2000, pending approval by the membership of the Health Applications Section.
2. Entrant must have made copies of the paper available to the audience at the time the presentation is made. Paper can be a working paper, submitted paper, or published. Submit 3 copies of the paper at the time the presentation is made to the President of the Health Applications Section or his/her designee. If desired by the authors, the winning paper will be published in Health Care Management Science if it has not been published or is not under review elsewhere.
3. The prize will be awarded based on the written paper, not its presentation. In the event of several authors on the paper, or if an author other than the first author presents the paper, the authors must state in writing at the time the paper is submitted to whom the prize money should be distributed. All authors will be credited with having received the prize.
4. Authors will be notified by February 1 following the fall conference if their paper has won, with the prize money being sent at that time. Official announcement of the award will be made at the Health Application Section's annual meeting of the fall conference the following year.
5. The panel judging the papers reserves the right not to award a prize in any given year.

Judging:

The president of the Health Applications Section will serve as the coordinator of the best paper prize. S/he will solicit 3 volunteers who are members of the Health Applications Section to review the papers. Volunteer reviewers cannot serve if their participation represents a conflict of interest.

Papers will be judged on contribution to management science in health care, readability, clarity, organization of the paper, technical content, scope relative to the length of the paper, and originality.

Health Care Management Science has now two complete volumes. The first volume was published in 1998 with two issues. The second volume has four issues, the first three issues are in print the fourth issue is currently in press. Please visit the web site to check the contents and the abstracts of each volume (issue) at:

http://www.baltzer.nl/hcms/contents.html.

Please review the sample contents. We think you will want to order a subscription as well as publish your work in this high quality journal.

The Department of Healthcare Management at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management seeks candidates for a tenured or tenure track faculty position at the assistant, or associate, or full professor level, depending on the candidate's qualifications. An earned doctoral degree in field central to research and teaching in health care management is preferred (e.g. psychology, sociology, business administration, economics, or health services research.) Physicians with extensive training in health services research will be considered. Applicants must have strong research skills and the demonstrated ability to work effectively in an interdisciplinary setting. The successful candidate will be expected to conduct high quality research, mentor graduate and postdoctoral students, and teach graduate level course work. Review of applications will begin December 15, 1999 and continue until a candidate is selected.

Applicants should send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and the names of three references to Jon Christianson, Search Committee Chair, Department of Healthcare Management, 3-140 Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 321-19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEALTH SCIENCES SIMULATION

This annual conference, sponsored by the Society for Computer Simulation International (SCS), is a forum for professionals involved in modeling and simulation in the health sciences. Application areas include health services studies, modeling epidemics, pharmacometrics, drug and device development, medical practice, physiology, and methodology.

The next conference will be January 23-27, 2000 in San Diego, California.

Information can be found on the Web regarding the conference. The conference call for 2000 is on the Web at:

http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/soc/andersonj/call.html

Author's instructions can be found at:

http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/soc/andersonj/WMC2000.htm

The program of the 1999 WMC-HSS part is at: http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/soc/andersonj/program.html

An overview of presentations at the 1999 conference is provided in the 1999 Medical Sciences Simulation Proceedings Preface. It can be accessed at:

http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/soc/andersonj/preface.html

Abstracts for the papers will be reviewed and accepted up to October 31, 1999, the deadline for receipt of camera-ready papers.

Copies of accepted papers will be published in the proceedings.

General Chair

James G. Anderson, Ph.D.

Andersonj@sri.soc.purdue.edu

FAX: (765) 496-1476

Tel: (765) 494-4703

or

General Co-Chair

Meyer Katzper, Ph.D.

katzper@cder.fda.gov

FAX: (301) 827-2531

Tel: (301) 827-2563

Your professional journal, Health Care Management Science, is soliciting referees. Nominate or volunteer yourself or a colleague for this important activity. The following page contains the form used to submit a candidate for consideration. A broad spectrum of expertise and viewpoints is needed and useful to maintain and develop this vibrant journal. Critical review of submitted articles insures quality of publication. A greater number of referees can also improve publication turn around times. Be a sport, do something fun and intellectually stimulating. Get the jump on the latest research and results! Fill out the form, send it to the editors at;

Professor Yasar A. Ozcan

Department of Health Administration

P.O. Box 980203

1008 East Clay Street

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, VA 23298-0203

23298-0203 USA

-----------------

Voice:1-804-828-5224

Fax: 1-804-828-1894

e-mail: ozcan@hsc.vcu.edu

or

Professor Peter C. Smith

Centre for Health Economics

University of York

York YO1 5DD

England

------------------------

tel: +44 - 1904 - 433 779

fax: +44 - 1904 - 433 759

e-mail:

pcs1@york.ac.uk

You’ll be glad you did!

Health Care Management Science

Referee Profile

Name:___________________________________________________

Title:____________________________________________________

Affiliation:_______________________________________________

Address (where to mail correspondence):

Phone number:___________________ e-mail:_______________________

Fax number:____________________

Please list your specialty areas of expertise and/or interests in OR/MS and health care applications:

Specialty #1:_________________________________________________

Specialty #2:_________________________________________________

Specialty #3:_________________________________________________

Specialty #4:_________________________________________________

Specialty #5:_________________________________________________

Comments/Suggestions for HCMS:

INFORMS-KORMS Seoul 2000 International Meeting will be held on June 18-21, 2000. I have agreed to serve as cluster chair for health care sessions. I am organizing an invited cluster of HEALTH Applications for INFORMS-KORMS Seoul 2000 International Meeting which will be held on June 18-21, 2000. If you are planning to attend this conference and would like to submit an abstract, please send an e-mail to ozcan@hsc.vcu.edu indicating your intent. In order to organize this event, we needed to have abstracts fielded by August 1999. Those wishing to contribute abstracts or find out more information about the conference, should contact Dr. Yassar Ozcan at the above e-mail address. Those indicating an interest in participating will be forwarded information as soon as it becomes available. For those that have submitted an abstract, the abstract fee will be approximately $100 and will be counted toward registration.

Yasar A. Ozcan

Yasar A. Ozcan, Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief

Health Care Management Science

P.O. Box 980203

1008 East Clay Street, Room #213

Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond, VA 23298-0203 U.S.A.

Tel: 804-828-5224

Fax: 804-828-1894

ozcan@hsc.vcu.edu

http://www.vcu.edu/haeweb/hcms/hcms.html

Questions and Comments about this web site should be directed to the Health Application Section's WebPerson