Talk: Research in Mathematical Models in Health Care

Time: 22 March · 18:00 – 19:30

Location: Bahen – Room 2155

Created by: Galbraith Society, Layan Kutob, Philip Chen

Speaker: Professor Timothy Chan, Operations Research Professor in Industrial Engineering, Research Area: Optimization in healthcare (University of Toronto)

Professor Chan will talk about his research in mathematical optimization models implemented in health care, such as the design of radiation therapy treatments for cancer patients and distribution of automated defibrillators. Students will also be exposed to some of the broader issues in conducting successful (interdisciplinary) research. Professor Chan will share his experience in research collaboration, including the necessary skills, the difficulties that need to be overcome, and most importantly, acquiring research funding.

Speaker’s Bio:

Timothy C. Y. Chan is an Assistant Professor in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. His primary research interests are in optimization under uncertainty and the application of optimization methods to radiation therapy, sustainability and health care operations which include topics such cancer clinic scheduling, and public access defibrillator. He received his B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of British Columbia, and his Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before coming to Toronto, he was an Associate in the Chicago office of McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm. During that time, he advised leading companies in the fields of medical device technology, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, and energy on issues of strategy, organization, technology and operations.

For further details about Professor Chan, please visit his website: http://chan.mie.utoronto.ca/

U of T IHI Seminar: The Role of Communication in Preventing Healthcare Errors

Speaker: Neil D’Souza, M.R.T.T, M.H.Sc

Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Time: 12:10-1pm

Location: Room 3163, Medical Sciences Building

Food: Free for members, or toonie for the event.

RSVP: to uoftihiseminar@gmail.com with your full name and faculty to reserve your spot!

Neil is a radiation therapist in practice at the Odette Cancer Centre. His current role as Quality Assurance Coordinator for the Radiation Oncology Program at the Odette Cancer Centre came as a result of his interest in organizational quality improvement and patient safety during his graduate studies in health administration at U of T’s Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is the Co-Chair of the Radiation Program Quality Assurance Committee with various responsibilities such as ensuring compliance with CAPCA guidelines for radiation treatment centres, developing standardized planning and treatment protocols for disease site groups and chairing program wide quality assurance rounds for radiation oncology professionals. Neil co-lead the development of Odette Cancer Centre’s radiation incident learning system and its implementation to reduce and learn from errors and near misses. His research interests include examining incident trends and root causes of radiation incidents across all disease site groups, with particular subset study of patients receiving palliative radiotherapy.

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