Plenary Sessions

Professor Nadia Lahrichi - 07.07.2025 09:30 to 10:30

We have two excellent plennary sessions scheduled and an exciting panel discussion. For more information see below.

Leveraging Operations Research to drive innovation in Healthcare Systems

As healthcare systems face increasing pressure to deliver high-quality care efficiently, operations research (OR) offers powerful tools for driving innovation and enhancing system performance. In this keynote, we will explore how advanced OR methodologies and data analytics can transform healthcare delivery through practical case studies, including resource scheduling and allocation. We will also examine some critical questions such as: Does innovation in hospitals align with innovation in OR? And what are the key elements that drive meaningful change? While we may not have definitive answers, we will share insights and lessons learned that can help shape the discussion.

Nadia Lahrichi holds a PhD in applied mathematics from Polytechnique Montréal. She is currently a full professor at the department of Mathematics and industrial engineering at Polytechnique Montreal and the codirector of CIRRELT. Her research is mainly focused towards applying modeling and operational research tools to improve patient flow in the healthcare system. She uses exact, metaheuristics and discrete event simulation approaches to tackle patient and resource scheduling problems. She has published more than 50 papers in peer reviewed journals and received the award for outstanding application of operational research (from the Canadian Operational research society) for solving the home health care routing and scheduling problem.

She is an associate editor of Health Care Management Science and Operations research for Health Care. She co-organized multiple international conferences such as Optimization Days, Odysseus, NOW and ORAHS.