1991 - Lisele

The XVIIth meeting of the Working Group was held in Liseleje, North Sealand, Denmark, from August 4 to 9, 1991, under the theme: How can OR contribute to the reform of national health care systems. Organiser of the meeting was Chris Aagaard, Fredrigsborg Amt. In total 22 members from 9 different countries attended the meeting (cf Appendix 1). Of the attenders 7 were first comers and 13 participated in the previous meeting in Wroclaw, Poland. Sponsorship was received from the Ministry of health in the form of an opening dinner.

In total 14 papers were presented – 7 of these were the theme of the conference and the rest on various health OR subjects. A full list of presented papers appears in Appendix 2.

The meeting opened with an informal welcome reception on Sunday afternoon. On Monday August 5 the official opening of the meeting took place and the current group affairs to be discussed during the week were introduced by the chairman. Theme papers were presented and discussed on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Wednesday programme ended with a study tour to the Fredrikssund hospital including a meeting with the hospital director and his staff and the chairman of the regional medical association. On Thursday the programme contained other non-theme related papers. The last day of the meeting was devoted to a future workshop exercise concerning problems and possible strategies for the future successful development of the Working Group. Finally another Group Affairs session concluded the meeting. The different issues discussed will be presented below. A special report of the futures workshop is enclosed (Appendix 3).

Due to the relatively low number of presented papers more time than usual could be devoted to questions and discussions in connection to the presentations. It was generally felt that this added considerably to the value of the meeting even though of course the low number of presented papers was somewhat discouraging.

The social programme was as usual of high standard and contained in addition to the above mentioned opening dinner on Monday night sponsored by the Ministry also a visit to the old castle of Selsö and a conference dinner at the Lisegården conference centre on Wednesday and a very enjoyable open-air farewell party on Thursday. After these experiences all attenders were totally convinced of the superiority of Danish food and the reason of its success on the world market – including herring and home spiced if not home made, aquavite (Denmark is unfortunately too crowded for moon-shining!).

GROUP AFFAIRS
Re. Register of members
In accordance with the decision made last year, Jan Vissers has produced a revised list of members including research interests and written to contact the person in each country asking them to check the list with regard to continued interest in membership. Unfortunately fairly few responses have been received (depending on hang-ups at the contact person level?). It was decided that Jan makes the revision according to his judgement and sends out the revised list as soon as possible.

Re. Newsletter
Only one newsletter has been produced since last meeting. It was decided that this perhaps represents a more realistic level than previously decided, but it was also re-emphasised that the newsletter only reflects the contributions of the members. If we want a useful, substantial newsletter we have to provide that content to the editor!

Re. Course on managing change in health care
Two courses building upon the original Leeds concept have been produced. The first in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, April 4th-5th 1991, under the title ‘Model support for managing change in health care’ and the second ‘Decision support for managing change in health care’ – in Stockholm, May 23-24th 1991. The later run took the form of an open seminar attached to a longer course in health administration at the Kronan Health Centre, Karolinska Institute. In both courses several members of the Working Group presented lectures and demonstrated computer systems and models.

The possibilities of further re-runs were discussed. The nearest possibility seems to Poland in early spring 1992 arranged by Marek Lubicz. The possibility of using the course material as a basis for a new ‘state of the art’ book was also discussed but no decisions taken.

Re. EURO contacts
The chairman reported contacts with the EURO coordinator for Working Groups, Dr Isabel Hall Themido. A report has been sent to her describing the activities of the WGORAHS.

In July a meeting was arranged in Aachen with the Working Group Coordinators in connection to the EURO conference. Unfortunately the WG was not represented at that meeting. In the invitation to the meeting the prospect of EURO providing financial support for special Working Group activities was held out. In a later received reports from the EURO meeting by Dr Themido, she declared however that this had been voted down by the EURO Council. Only a very small sum would be available.

It was also decided at the Aachen meeting that in the future the Working Groups will produce a yearly report of their activities. The reports will be published in EJORS or the EURO bulletin. More information about the EURO Working Groups and the outcome of the Aachen meeting will be provided in the newsletter.

Re. Information leaflet
In accordance with the agreement of last year the chairman has produced a draft for a leaflet describing the Working Group and its objectives and activities. The leaflet us supposed to be used for outside contacts in general and more specifically in marketing and recruitment efforts. David Clayden accepted to revise the draft and edit the final version. This will be sent out to all members and to the EURO contacts.

Re. Proceedings of the 1990 meeting
Marek Lubicz has produced a volume containing more than 30 papers and abstracts presented at the Wroclaw meeting in 1990. Marek also volunteered to produce proceeding in the same way for following meetings. Great satisfaction was expressed at this most generous offer. Also Marek functions as guest editor for a special EJOR issue containing 10-12 of the most suitable of the Wroclaw papers. The papers have been sent out to referees and as soon as enough replies have arrived a selection will be made.

Re. Proposed cooperation with the ‘WHO network fro Health monitoring, evaluation and future studies’
The chairman reported contacts with Drs S. Orezeszyna and S. Sapirie at the WHO unit of Monitoring, Evaluation and Projection Methodology in Geneva. The unit is setting up a network of researchers in the above-mentioned fields. As a result of the agreement Jan Vissers has sent current member register to the WHO unit and the Working Group members are expected to receive a letter of invitation to join the network.

Also from the existing WHO network including in total 97 persons the chairman has extracted a list of 40 persons, whose declared research interest suggest that they might be interested in joining the Working Group. It was agreed that the chairman should write a letter of invitation to these persons – enclosing the above information leaflet – and that those who responded favourably should be included in the member register.

It was also pointed out in the discussion that it is important that the Working Group can attract able newcomers in order to stay vital and progressive. Efforts should also be made to attract Health OR practitioners form European countries that now has no or very small representations in the WG.

Re. Proposals to arrange next WG meeting in connection to the Systems Science in Health Care conference in Prague June 1992.
The above-mentioned conference will take in Prague June 29-July 3 1992. Acting from the purpose of increasing the possibilities to participate in both the Prague conference and the WG meeting and also stimulate Eastern Europe contacts, the chairman reported from exchanges of letters with Marek Maly, Czech representative of the WG, and Prof. M.K Chytil, Secretary General of SSHC 1992.

It has turned out that Marek Maly is willing to arrange a WG conference in Prague 1992 but depending among others upon the hotel situation this can only be dome during the same week as the SSHC conference. The WG attenders should in this case be registered as participants to the SSHC and pay the corresponding registering fee.

It was concluded in the discussion that his arrangement was not very satisfactory since it would splinter the WG meeting or very much restrict the possibilities to joining the SSHC. The decision therefore was to decline Marek Maly’s offer- however, with an expressed interest of coming back a year later. The chairman will report back to Marek Maly.

As an alternative the chairman offered to arrange a session in the SSHC conference on Health OR applications with members of the Working Group. Members of the WG that are interested in participating should contact the chairman.

Re. Time and place of coming meetings
Since this the Czechoslovakian alternative was ruled out the offer from Michael Grutz to arrange the 1992 meeting in Konstanz, Fed. Rep of Germany was happily accepted. The meeting is planned to take place from July 26 to 31 1992. The theme is proposed to be ‘Hospital Information Systems’. First announcement is expected to be sent out in September.

For the following meeting there is a previous offer from Tom Bowen, United Kingdom to arrange it in Brighton in Summer 1993. No further offers were made at the meeting.

It was expressed, however, that a meeting in 1994 in Czechoslovakia or some other Eastern Europe country would be highly desirable.

Re. Election of a new chairman and a secretary of the Working Group
The chairman has declared his wish to retire after serving the Working Group for nine years and proposed as his successor David Claydon, United Kingdom. David was elected with acclamation. In order to facilitate renewal of the chairmanship it was decided that he chairmen should be elected for a three-year term, in this case 1992-1994 with a new election at the 1994 meeting.

In order to divide the administrative work more evenly and provide further stability of the Working Group it was proposed to create the post of Secretary to the WG. The proposal was accepted and Marek Lubicz was elected to the post for the same term as above. The responsibilities of the Secretary will be discussed with the chairmen-elect. It was agreed, however, that this would not change Jan Vissers being responsible for the member register.

After concluding the discussion on group affairs the chairman had the sad duty to inform the attenders that Clemens Dietrich, one of the ‘founding fathers’ of the Group, had died December last year. Clemens, whose memory will always be retained in the Group both for his excellent professional contributions and his kindness and many talents – including magic and the playing on spoons! - was honoured by a silent minute.

The XVIIth meeting of the Working Group in Liseleje was concluded by the retiring chairman expressing the warm thanks of the Group to the organiser Chris Aagaard and his wife Anna for a very enjoyable and well-organised meeting entirely in the traditional spirit of Working Group.

By this report the chairman also wants to thank all members for their support and contributions to the effort of fulfilling the objectives of the Working Group OR Applied to Health Services- that is to be an efficient network for advancing our profession by communication, cooperation and inspiration!

APPENDIX 2

EUROPEAN WORKING GROUP O.R APPLIED TO HEALTH SERVICES 17TH ANNUAL MEETING, AUGUST 4-9 1991IN LISELEJE, DENMARK.

Conference theme: How can O.R contribute to the reform of national health care systems?

List of papers presented (in order of presentation)

Mixed subjects
Sandra Schiffel (Fed.Rep of Germany): Supporting the nursing process by computerised nurse charting.

Mario D’Oliverira (Brazil): How simulations can improve the emergency admission. System of a Brazilian hospital.

Conference theme
Geoff Royston (United Kingdom): Contradictions in the UK health service reforms

Jan Vissers (the Netherlands): Macro reforms and micro impacts – some experiences in the Netherlands

Mårten Lagergren (Sweden): Health care reform in Sweden- problems and objectives

Ruth Barnes (Untied Kingdom): Setting strategic health goals: International comparisons.

Mixed subjects
Michael Grutz (Fed. Rep of Germany): Which is the doctor’s best computer system?

David Clayden (United Kingdom): Medical audit – a preliminary for decision support in hospitals

Jan Schreuder (The Netherlands): Questionnaire cystic fibrosis

Finn Börlum Kristensen (Denmark): Longitudinal recording of health problems and activity in general practice

Allard Kastelein (the Netherlands): Management of change.