Applying model-driven engineering to problems in healthcare operations
Healthcare systems all over the world face huge challenges from growing and ageing populations, limited resources, and increasing expectations of patients and other stakeholders. Healthcare operations research (OR) is a field that applies mathematical and computational methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare systems. It has existed for a long time, the EWS ORAHS working group has been around since 1975, for example.
Yet, many healthcare OR solutions struggle to be adopted in practice, and frequently, solutions are reimplemented time and time again in new contexts. I’m interested in how software engineering approaches – and model-driven engineering in particular – can help to address these challenges, and to make healthcare OR solutions more reusable, adaptable, and accessible to all stakeholders. My research, thus, ranges from empirical studies of healthcare operations, to the development of new healthcare-specific modelling languages and tools, and to the application of these languages and tools to real-world healthcare problems.
References
Journal Articles
2025
On Simulation Reuse in Healthcare Applications
Steffen Zschaler, Navonil Mustafee, Alison Harper, and 4 more authors
@article{ZschalerEtAl25b,author={Zschaler, Steffen and Mustafee, Navonil and Harper, Alison and Monks, Thomas and Onggo, Bhakti Stephan and Currie, Christine and Polack, Fiona},title={On Simulation Reuse in Healthcare Applications},journal={Simulation},year={2025},doi={10.1177/00375497251383912},url={https://doi.org/10.1177/00375497251383912},}
2021
Interprofessional barriers in patient flow management: an interview study of the views of emergency department staff involved in patient admissions
Olga Boiko, Matthew Edwards, Steffen Zschaler, and 2 more authors
@article{BoikoEtAl21,author={Boiko, Olga and Edwards, Matthew and Zschaler, Steffen and Miles, Simon and Rafferty, Anne Marie},title={Interprofessional barriers in patient flow management: an interview study of the views of emergency department staff involved in patient admissions},pages={334--342},journal={Journal of Interprofessional Care},volume={35},number={3},year={2021},publisher={Taylor \& Francis},doi={10.1080/13561820.2020.1760223},url={https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2020.1760223},}
@inproceedings{MorganEtAl26,author={Morgan, Lucy and Harper, Alison and Monks, Thomas and Heather, Amy and Zschaler, Steffen},title={Exploring Reusability Barriers for Simulation Models in Healthcare},booktitle={2026 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC)},year={2026},note={To appear}}
Using model-driven techniques for specifying and solving optimisation problems in the healthcare domain: A case study based on the Integrated Healthcare Timetabling Problem
Maximilian Kratz, Jule Pfau, Steffen Zschaler, and 2 more authors
In 1st International Workshop on Model Engineering for Digital Innovation in Healthcare (MEDIC’26), 2026
@inproceedings{KratzEtAl26,author={Kratz, Maximilian and Pfau, Jule and Zschaler, Steffen and Kosiol, Jens and Sch{\"u}rr, Andy},title={Using model-driven techniques for specifying and solving optimisation problems in the healthcare domain: A case study based on the Integrated Healthcare Timetabling Problem},booktitle={1st International Workshop on Model Engineering for Digital Innovation in Healthcare ({MEDIC}'26)},year={2026},note={To appear},}
@inproceedings{GodfreyEtAl23,author={Godfrey, Thomas and Zschaler, Steffen and Batra, Rahul and Douthwaite, Sam and Edgeworth, Jonathan and Edwards, Matthew and Miles, Simon},title={Supporting Emergency Department Risk Mitigation with a Modular and Reusable Agent-Based Simulation Infrastructure},booktitle={2023 Winter Simulation Conference},year={2023},month=dec,pages={162--173},publisher={IEEE},doi={10.1109/wsc60868.2023.10407894},url={https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc60868.2023.10407894},note={Also presented at `Modellierung 2024'},}
Automatic Inference of Smart Data Discovery Interfaces for Rare Disease Datasets
Artur Boronat, Adekunle Ademeyo, Mehdi Mehtarizadeh, and 1 more author
In 3rd International Health Data Workshop (HEDA’23), 2023
@inproceedings{BoronatEtAl23,author={Boronat, Artur and Ademeyo, Adekunle and Mehtarizadeh, Mehdi and Zschaler, Steffen},title={Automatic Inference of Smart Data Discovery Interfaces for Rare Disease Datasets},booktitle={3rd International Health Data Workshop (HEDA'23)},year={2023},}
2022
A Methodology for DSML-assisted Participatory Agent-Based Enterprise Modelling
Thomas Godfrey, Rahul Batra, Sam Douthwaite, and 3 more authors
In 15th IFIP WG 8.1 Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modelling (PoEM’22), 2022
@inproceedings{GodfreyEtAl22,author={Godfrey, Thomas and Batra, Rahul and Douthwaite, Sam and Edgeworth, Jonathan and Miles, Simon and Zschaler, Steffen},title={A Methodology for {DSML}-assisted Participatory Agent-Based Enterprise Modelling},booktitle={15th {IFIP} {WG 8.1} Working Conference on the Practice of Enterprise Modelling ({PoEM}'22)},year={2022},pages={201--215},publisher={Springer International Publishing},doi={10.1007/978-3-031-21488-2_13},isbn={9783031214882},issn={1865-1356},url={https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-21488-2_13},}