ORAHS2024
Abstract Submission

121. Towards a richer understanding of implementation of OR in health services: a systematic review

Contributed abstract in session HC-4: Healthcare Management /2, stream Regular talks.

Thursday, 14:00-15:30
Room: Room S3

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Guillaume Lamé
Laboratoire de Génie Industriel, CentraleSupélec
2. Tom Bashford
Engineering and Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
3. Sonya Crowe
UCL
4. Luca Grieco
Clinical Operational Research Unit, University College London
5. Coco Newton
TU Delft and University College London
6. Saba Hinrichs-Krapels
Technology, Policy and Management, TU Delft

Abstract

The limited implementation of OR methods within health services is a longstanding frustration for the OR community. Previous literature reviews have shown that about less than 10% of articles address implementation. However, little is known about what factors favor implementation (how and why does it ‘work’?), and even the notion of implementation itself is often only vaguely defined (what type of impact do we expect?). Finally, there is little interaction between OR and the academic discipline of ‘implementation science’, which studies the transfer of scientific evidence into healthcare practice.

We searched the Web of Knowledge, Scopus, and PubMed for relevant articles. After deduplication, we included 4,992 abstracts for screening. We performed single-reviewer screening, with 10% double-screening. We retained 440 articles for full-text review. We included all articles discussing the practical implementation of OR methods (case studies that mentioned implementation, and studies focused on the process of implementation). We extracted information on what counted as ‘implementation’, the level of change, the extent to which implementation was described, and the mention of ‘implementation science’ concepts and frameworks. We offer recommendations for the conceptualization of implementation of healthcare OR and for the reporting of implementation in future healthcare OR studies.

Keywords

Status: accepted


Back to the list of papers