1st International Workshop on Planning of Emergency Services: Theory and Practice

CWI, Amsterdam, 25‐27 June 2014

In life‐threatening emergency situations, the ability of emergency medical services to arrive at the emergency scene within a few minutes may make the difference between survival or death. To realize such extremely short response times at affordable cost, efficient planning of emergency services is crucial. To this end, emergency service providers face a variety of planning problems at tactical, strategic and operational level. Typical questions are 'How can we reliably predict emergency call volumes over time and space?', 'How can we properly anticipate and respond to peaks in call volumes?', 'How many vehicles are needed and where should they be stationed?', 'How to properly schedule vehicles and personnel?', and 'How can we realize good coverage at any time by proper proactive relocation?'.

The goal of the workshop is to bring together practitioners and scientists and to create an informal setting where we openly discuss the opportunities and challenges in the emergency sector in the years to come. To this end, we invite selected practitioners working in the field and world‐class academic researchers to stimulate discussions about recent development in the field and in the academic community. There will also be posters sessions with Ph.D. students which give a good overview of current research.

Program:

The workshop will consist of two parts:

• 25th and 26th June will have a scientific focus.
• Friday 27th will be called "Practitioners day" where practitioners and scientists openly discuss the key challenges in the sector for the years to come.

There will be keynote presentations, invited lectures and oral presentations on all days. On Wednesday and Friday there will also be poster presentations.

Keynote lectures:

• Prof.dr. Shane Henderson (Cornell University, New York, USA)
• Prof.dr. Armann Ingolfsson (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada)

Topics of interest include:

• Forecasting emergency call volumes in time and space
• Optimization of base station locations, coverage problems
• Staffing models for emergency services
• Real-time travel time models
• Dynamic ambulance management
• Proactive relocations
• Models for emergency call centers for ambulance, firefighters and police
• Simulation models for emergency planning
• Flexible personel scheduling

Call for oral and poster presentations:

You are invited to submit proposals for short oral presentations or poster presentations. See Abstract Submission for further information.

Organizers:

• Prof.dr. Rob van der Mei (CWI and VU University), mei@cwi.nl
• Prof.dr.ir. Karen Aardal (TU Delft)
• Martin van Buuren, M.Sc. (CWI, VU University, and Ambulance Amsterdam)
• Ir. Geert Jan Kommer (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu)
• Dr.ir. Theresia van Essen (CWI, TU Delft)