![Daniel Gartner](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/175?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Daniel Gartner
Professor of Operational Research
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
My research interests are in mathematical programming, optimization and machine learning applied to the service industry, especially healthcare operations.
An author of more than a dozen of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings, my research was awarded with several prizes at international conferences such as INFORMS healthcare, INFORMS annual meeting, ORAHS and the OR Society's annual meeting and simulation workshop.
I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Area Editor of international journals such as
- INFORMS Journal on Data Science (https://pubsonline.informs.org/journal/ijds)
- OR for Healthcare (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/operations-research-for-health-care), and
- Health Systems (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/thss20/current).
As an EPSRC Peer Review College member, I have achieved a ranking in the top 6% of College members for participating in peer review activities during the academic year 2019/20. Also, I received the Cardiff University's Celebrating Excellence 2019 Rising Star Award.
The impactful mathematical modelling work that I carry out with colleages in MATHS and with the NHS lead to significant cost savings and carbon footprint reductions. Also, I'm proud of a programme that I co-designed with the NHS to support clinicians and managers in healthcare analytics and mathematical modelling, creating a network and community of modelling fellows.
Publication
2025
- England, T., Behrens, D. A., Davies, T. and Gartner, D. 2025. Modelling and optimizing the decontamination process of surgical instruments. In: Wickramasinghe, N. ed. Impact of Digital Solutions for Improved Healthcare Delivery. IGI Global, pp. 147-166., (10.4018/979-8-3693-5237-3.ch005)
2024
- Brice, S., Boutilier, J., Palmer, G., Harper, P. R., Knight, V., Tuson, M. and Gartner, D. 2024. Close-up on ambulance service estimation in Indonesia: Monte Carlo simulation study. Interactive Journal of Medical Research 13, article number: e54240. (10.2196/54240)
- Howells, M., Harper, P., Palmer, G. and Gartner, D. 2024. Fractured systems: a literature review of OR/MS methods applied to orthopaedic care settings and treatments. Health Systems 13(3), pp. 151-176. (10.1080/20476965.2023.2264348)
- Grange, H., Johns, G., Ahuja, A., Harper, P., Williams, E. and Gartner, D. 2024. Capacity planning of virtual wards for frail and elderly patients. Healthcare 12(5), article number: 533. (10.3390/healthcare12050533)
2023
- Behrens, D. A., Morgan, J. S., Krczal, E., Harper, P. R. and Gartner, D. 2023. Still looking in the wrong place: literature-based evidence of why patients really attend an emergency department. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 90, article number: 101707. (10.1016/j.seps.2023.101707)
- Gartner, D., Viana, J., Rostami-Tabar, B., Pförringer, D. and Edenharter, G. 2023. Challenging the throwaway culture in hospitals: scheduling the mix of reusable and single-use bronchoscopes. Journal of the Operational Research Society 74(10), pp. 2215-2226. (10.1080/01605682.2022.2129490)
- Tuson, M., Harper, P., Gartner, D. and Behrens, D. 2023. Understanding the impact of social networks on the spread of obesity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20(15), article number: 6451. (10.3390/ijerph20156451)
- Palmer, A., Johns, G., Ahuja, A. and Gartner, D. 2023. Optimizing an adolescent hybrid telemedical mental health service: Staff scheduling using mathematical programming. JMIR Formative Research(7), article number: e43222. (10.2196/43222)
- Brice, S. N., Harper, P. R., Gartner, D. and Behrens, D. A. 2023. Modeling disease progression and treatment pathways for depression jointly using agent based modeling and system dynamics. Frontiers in Public Health 10, article number: 1011104. (10.3389/fpubh.2022.1011104)
- Evans, L., Acton, J. H., Hiscott, C. and Gartner, D. 2023. An operations research approach to automated patient scheduling for eye care using a multi-criteria decision support tool. Scientific Reports 13, article number: 553. (10.1038/s41598-022-26755-1)
- England, T., Harper, P., Crosby, T., Gartner, D., Arruda, E. F., Foley, K. and Williamson, I. 2023. Modelling lung cancer diagnostic pathways using discrete event simulation. Journal of Simulation 17(1), pp. 94-104. (10.1080/17477778.2021.1956866)
2022
- Brice, S. et al. 2022. Emergency services utilization in Jakarta (Indonesia): A cross-sectional study of patients attending hospital emergency departments. BMC Health Services Research 22, article number: 639. (10.1186/s12913-022-08061-8)
- Williams, E., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2022. Linking predictive and prescriptive analytics of elderly and frail patient hospital services. Presented at: 10th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2022), Rochester, MN, United States, 11-14 June 20222022 IEEE 10th International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI). pp. 1-1., (10.1109/ICHI54592.2022.00071)
- Gartner, D., Williams, E. and Harper, P. 2022. Prescriptive healthcare analytics: a tutorial on discrete optimization and simulation. Presented at: 10th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2022), Rochester, MN, United States, 11-14 June 2022.
- Gartner, D., England, T., Behrens, D., Spernaes, I., Buchanan, J. and Harper, P. 2022. Evaluation of participants’ reaction and learning in a taught analytics and modelling academy program in U.K.’s National Health Service. Presented at: 10th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2022), Rochester, MN, United States, 11-14 June 2022.
- Howells, M., Andrew, L. and Gartner, D. 2022. Modelling the accessibility of adult psychology services using discrete event simulation. Presented at: Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui, Hawaii, USA, 3-7 January 2022.
2021
- Williams, E., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2021. A survey of OR/MS models on care planning for frail and elderly patients. Operations Research for Health Care 31, article number: 100325. (10.1016/j.orhc.2021.100325)
- Ferrão, J. C., Oliveira, M. D., Gartner, D., Janela, F. and Martins, H. 2021. Leveraging electronic health record data to inform hospital resource management: A systematic data mining approach. Health Care Management Science 24, pp. 716-741. (10.1007/s10729-021-09554-4)
- Gartner, D. and Kolisch, R. 2021. Mathematical programming for nominating exchange students for international universities: the impact of stakeholders' objectives and fairness constraints on allocations. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 76, article number: 100974. (10.1016/j.seps.2020.100974)
- Arruda, E., Harper, P., England, T., Gartner, D., Aspland, E., Ourique, F. and Crosby, T. 2021. Resource optimisation for cancer pathways with aggregate diagnostic demand: a perishable inventory approach. IMA Journal of Management Mathematics 32(2), pp. 221-236. (10.1093/imaman/dpaa014)
- England, T., Harper, P., Crosby, T., Gartner, D., Arruda, E. F., Foley, K. and Williamson, I. J. 2021. Examining the diagnostic pathway for lung cancer patients in Wales using discrete event simulation. Translational Lung Cancer Research 10(3), pp. 1368-1382. (10.21037/tlcr-20-919)
- Aspland, E., Harper, P. R., Gartner, D., Webb, P. and Barrett-Lee, P. 2021. Modified Needleman-Wunsch algorithm for clinical pathway clustering. Journal of Biomedical Informatics 115, article number: 103668. (10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103668)
- Aspland, E., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2021. Clinical pathway modelling: A literature review. Health Systems 10(1), pp. 1-23. (10.1080/20476965.2019.1652547)
- Brice, S. et al. 2021. Factors influencing the delivery of cancer pathways: a summary of the literature. Journal of Health Organization and Management 35(9), pp. 121-139. (10.1108/JHOM-05-2020-0192)
- Ferrão, J., Oliveira, M. D., Gartner, D., Janela, F. and Martins, H. 2021. Can structured EHR data support clinical coding? A data mining approach. Health Systems 10(2), pp. 138-161. (10.1080/20476965.2020.1729666)
- England, T. et al. 2021. Near real-time bed modelling feasibility study. Journal of Simulation 15(4), pp. 261-272. (10.1080/17477778.2019.1706434)
2020
- Soares, H., Fernandes De Arruda, E., Bahiense, L., Gartner, D. and Amorim Filho, L. 2020. Optimisation and control of the supply of blood bags in hemotherapic centres via Markov Decision Process with discounted arrival rate. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (10.1016/j.artmed.2020.101791)
- Williams, E., Harper, P. and Gartner, D. 2020. Modelling of the collections process in the blood supply chain: a literature review. IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 10(3), pp. 200-211. (10.1080/24725579.2020.1776426)
- Lynam, A., Behrens, D. A., Battista-Dowds, E. M., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2020. A Monte Carlo simulation model for evaluating the effectiveness of Interventions along the ‘Diabesity’ pathway. Presented at: 8th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2020), Virtual, 30 November - 3 December 2020Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics.
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2020. Flexible hospital-wide elective patient scheduling. Journal of the Operational Research Society 71(6), pp. 878-892. (10.1080/01605682.2019.1590509)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2020. Machine learning for healthcare behavioural or: addressing waiting time perceptions in emergency care. Journal of the Operational Research Society 71(7), pp. 1087-1101. (10.1080/01605682.2019.1571005)
2019
- Edenharter, G. et al. 2019. Delay of transfer from the intensive care unit: a prospective observational analysis on economic effects of delayed in-house transfer. European Journal of Medical Research 24(1), pp. -., article number: 30. (10.1186/s40001-019-0388-3)
- Gartner, D., Zhang, Y. and Padman, R. 2019. Reducing clinical workload in the care prescription process: optimization of order sets. IMA Journal of Management Mathematics 30(3), pp. 305-321. (10.1093/imaman/dpy018)
- Fleming, R., Gartner, D., Padman, R. and James, D. 2019. An analytical approach for improving patient-centric delivery of dialysis services. Presented at: AMIA 2019 Annual Symposium, Washington, US, 16-20 Nov 2019.
2018
- Gartner, D., Frey, M. and Kolisch, R. 2018. Hospital-wide therapist scheduling and routing: exact and heuristic methods. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 8(4), pp. 268-279. (10.1080/24725579.2018.1530314)
- Gartner, D., Zhang, Y. and Padman, R. 2018. Cognitive workload reduction in hospital information systems. Health Care Management Science 21(2), pp. 224-243. (10.1007/s10729-017-9406-6)
- Abaho, M., Gartner, D., Cerutti, F. and Boulton, J. 2018. Text annotation using textual semantic similarity and term-frequency (Twitter). Presented at: European Conference on Information Systems 2018, Portsmouth, UK, 23-28 June 2018Research Papers. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) pp. 205.
2017
- Edenharter, G. M., Gartner, D. and Pförringer, D. 2017. Decision support for the capacity management of bronchoscopy devices: Optimizing the cost-efficient mix of reusable and single-use devices through mathematical modeling. Anesthesia & Analgesia 124(6), pp. 1963-1967. (10.1213/ANE.0000000000001729)
- Arnolds, I. V. and Gartner, D. 2017. Improving hospital layout planning through clinical pathway mining. Annals of operations research 263, pp. 453-477. (10.1007/s10479-017-2485-4)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2017. Mathematical programming and heuristics for patient scheduling in hospitals: a survey. In: Wickramasinghe, N. ed. Handbook of Research on Healthcare Administration and Management. , pp. 627-645., (10.4018/978-1-5225-0920-2.ch038)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2017. E-HOSPITAL – A digital workbench for hospital operations and services planning using information technology and algebraic languages. Presented at: 16th World Congress of Medical and Health Informatics, Xiamen, China, 21-25 August 20171MEDINFO 2017: Precision Healthcare through Informatics: Proceedings of the 16th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics IOS Press pp. 84-88.
2016
- Barz, C. and Gartner, D. 2016. Air cargo network revenue management. Transportation Science 50(4), pp. 1206-1222. (10.1287/trsc.2016.0708)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2016. Mathematical modelling and cluster analysis in healthcare analytics - the case of length of stay management. Presented at: International Conference on Information Systems, Dublin, 11 December 2016.
2015
- Gartner, D., Kolisch, R., Neill, D. B. and Padman, R. 2015. Machine learning approaches for early DRG classification and resource allocation. Informs Journal on Computing 27(4), pp. 718-734. (10.1287/ijoc.2015.0655)
- Gartner, D. 2015. Optimizing hospital-wide patient scheduling. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems. Springer International Publishing. (10.1007/978-3-319-04066-0)
- Gartner, D., Zhang, Y. and Padman, R. 2015. Workload reduction through usability improvement of hospital information systems-the case of order set optimization. Presented at: International Conference on Information Systems, Fort Worth, TX, 13-16 December 2015.
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2015. Improving hospital-wide early resource allocation through machine learning. Presented at: 15th World Congress on Health and Biomedical Informatics, Sao Paulo, 19 - 23 August 2015.
2014
- Gartner, D. and Kolisch, R. 2014. Scheduling the hospital-wide flow of elective patients. European Journal of Operational Research 233(3), pp. 689-699. (10.1016/j.ejor.2013.08.026)
- Gartner, D., Arnolds, I. V. and Nickel, S. 2014. Improving hospital-wide patient scheduling decisions by clinical pathway mining. Presented at: Medinfo 2015, Sao Paulo, 19 - 23 August 2015.
Articles
- Brice, S., Boutilier, J., Palmer, G., Harper, P. R., Knight, V., Tuson, M. and Gartner, D. 2024. Close-up on ambulance service estimation in Indonesia: Monte Carlo simulation study. Interactive Journal of Medical Research 13, article number: e54240. (10.2196/54240)
- Howells, M., Harper, P., Palmer, G. and Gartner, D. 2024. Fractured systems: a literature review of OR/MS methods applied to orthopaedic care settings and treatments. Health Systems 13(3), pp. 151-176. (10.1080/20476965.2023.2264348)
- Grange, H., Johns, G., Ahuja, A., Harper, P., Williams, E. and Gartner, D. 2024. Capacity planning of virtual wards for frail and elderly patients. Healthcare 12(5), article number: 533. (10.3390/healthcare12050533)
- Behrens, D. A., Morgan, J. S., Krczal, E., Harper, P. R. and Gartner, D. 2023. Still looking in the wrong place: literature-based evidence of why patients really attend an emergency department. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 90, article number: 101707. (10.1016/j.seps.2023.101707)
- Gartner, D., Viana, J., Rostami-Tabar, B., Pförringer, D. and Edenharter, G. 2023. Challenging the throwaway culture in hospitals: scheduling the mix of reusable and single-use bronchoscopes. Journal of the Operational Research Society 74(10), pp. 2215-2226. (10.1080/01605682.2022.2129490)
- Tuson, M., Harper, P., Gartner, D. and Behrens, D. 2023. Understanding the impact of social networks on the spread of obesity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20(15), article number: 6451. (10.3390/ijerph20156451)
- Palmer, A., Johns, G., Ahuja, A. and Gartner, D. 2023. Optimizing an adolescent hybrid telemedical mental health service: Staff scheduling using mathematical programming. JMIR Formative Research(7), article number: e43222. (10.2196/43222)
- Brice, S. N., Harper, P. R., Gartner, D. and Behrens, D. A. 2023. Modeling disease progression and treatment pathways for depression jointly using agent based modeling and system dynamics. Frontiers in Public Health 10, article number: 1011104. (10.3389/fpubh.2022.1011104)
- Evans, L., Acton, J. H., Hiscott, C. and Gartner, D. 2023. An operations research approach to automated patient scheduling for eye care using a multi-criteria decision support tool. Scientific Reports 13, article number: 553. (10.1038/s41598-022-26755-1)
- England, T., Harper, P., Crosby, T., Gartner, D., Arruda, E. F., Foley, K. and Williamson, I. 2023. Modelling lung cancer diagnostic pathways using discrete event simulation. Journal of Simulation 17(1), pp. 94-104. (10.1080/17477778.2021.1956866)
- Brice, S. et al. 2022. Emergency services utilization in Jakarta (Indonesia): A cross-sectional study of patients attending hospital emergency departments. BMC Health Services Research 22, article number: 639. (10.1186/s12913-022-08061-8)
- Williams, E., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2021. A survey of OR/MS models on care planning for frail and elderly patients. Operations Research for Health Care 31, article number: 100325. (10.1016/j.orhc.2021.100325)
- Ferrão, J. C., Oliveira, M. D., Gartner, D., Janela, F. and Martins, H. 2021. Leveraging electronic health record data to inform hospital resource management: A systematic data mining approach. Health Care Management Science 24, pp. 716-741. (10.1007/s10729-021-09554-4)
- Gartner, D. and Kolisch, R. 2021. Mathematical programming for nominating exchange students for international universities: the impact of stakeholders' objectives and fairness constraints on allocations. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 76, article number: 100974. (10.1016/j.seps.2020.100974)
- Arruda, E., Harper, P., England, T., Gartner, D., Aspland, E., Ourique, F. and Crosby, T. 2021. Resource optimisation for cancer pathways with aggregate diagnostic demand: a perishable inventory approach. IMA Journal of Management Mathematics 32(2), pp. 221-236. (10.1093/imaman/dpaa014)
- England, T., Harper, P., Crosby, T., Gartner, D., Arruda, E. F., Foley, K. and Williamson, I. J. 2021. Examining the diagnostic pathway for lung cancer patients in Wales using discrete event simulation. Translational Lung Cancer Research 10(3), pp. 1368-1382. (10.21037/tlcr-20-919)
- Aspland, E., Harper, P. R., Gartner, D., Webb, P. and Barrett-Lee, P. 2021. Modified Needleman-Wunsch algorithm for clinical pathway clustering. Journal of Biomedical Informatics 115, article number: 103668. (10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103668)
- Aspland, E., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2021. Clinical pathway modelling: A literature review. Health Systems 10(1), pp. 1-23. (10.1080/20476965.2019.1652547)
- Brice, S. et al. 2021. Factors influencing the delivery of cancer pathways: a summary of the literature. Journal of Health Organization and Management 35(9), pp. 121-139. (10.1108/JHOM-05-2020-0192)
- Ferrão, J., Oliveira, M. D., Gartner, D., Janela, F. and Martins, H. 2021. Can structured EHR data support clinical coding? A data mining approach. Health Systems 10(2), pp. 138-161. (10.1080/20476965.2020.1729666)
- England, T. et al. 2021. Near real-time bed modelling feasibility study. Journal of Simulation 15(4), pp. 261-272. (10.1080/17477778.2019.1706434)
- Soares, H., Fernandes De Arruda, E., Bahiense, L., Gartner, D. and Amorim Filho, L. 2020. Optimisation and control of the supply of blood bags in hemotherapic centres via Markov Decision Process with discounted arrival rate. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (10.1016/j.artmed.2020.101791)
- Williams, E., Harper, P. and Gartner, D. 2020. Modelling of the collections process in the blood supply chain: a literature review. IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 10(3), pp. 200-211. (10.1080/24725579.2020.1776426)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2020. Flexible hospital-wide elective patient scheduling. Journal of the Operational Research Society 71(6), pp. 878-892. (10.1080/01605682.2019.1590509)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2020. Machine learning for healthcare behavioural or: addressing waiting time perceptions in emergency care. Journal of the Operational Research Society 71(7), pp. 1087-1101. (10.1080/01605682.2019.1571005)
- Edenharter, G. et al. 2019. Delay of transfer from the intensive care unit: a prospective observational analysis on economic effects of delayed in-house transfer. European Journal of Medical Research 24(1), pp. -., article number: 30. (10.1186/s40001-019-0388-3)
- Gartner, D., Zhang, Y. and Padman, R. 2019. Reducing clinical workload in the care prescription process: optimization of order sets. IMA Journal of Management Mathematics 30(3), pp. 305-321. (10.1093/imaman/dpy018)
- Gartner, D., Frey, M. and Kolisch, R. 2018. Hospital-wide therapist scheduling and routing: exact and heuristic methods. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 8(4), pp. 268-279. (10.1080/24725579.2018.1530314)
- Gartner, D., Zhang, Y. and Padman, R. 2018. Cognitive workload reduction in hospital information systems. Health Care Management Science 21(2), pp. 224-243. (10.1007/s10729-017-9406-6)
- Edenharter, G. M., Gartner, D. and Pförringer, D. 2017. Decision support for the capacity management of bronchoscopy devices: Optimizing the cost-efficient mix of reusable and single-use devices through mathematical modeling. Anesthesia & Analgesia 124(6), pp. 1963-1967. (10.1213/ANE.0000000000001729)
- Arnolds, I. V. and Gartner, D. 2017. Improving hospital layout planning through clinical pathway mining. Annals of operations research 263, pp. 453-477. (10.1007/s10479-017-2485-4)
- Barz, C. and Gartner, D. 2016. Air cargo network revenue management. Transportation Science 50(4), pp. 1206-1222. (10.1287/trsc.2016.0708)
- Gartner, D., Kolisch, R., Neill, D. B. and Padman, R. 2015. Machine learning approaches for early DRG classification and resource allocation. Informs Journal on Computing 27(4), pp. 718-734. (10.1287/ijoc.2015.0655)
- Gartner, D. and Kolisch, R. 2014. Scheduling the hospital-wide flow of elective patients. European Journal of Operational Research 233(3), pp. 689-699. (10.1016/j.ejor.2013.08.026)
Book sections
- England, T., Behrens, D. A., Davies, T. and Gartner, D. 2025. Modelling and optimizing the decontamination process of surgical instruments. In: Wickramasinghe, N. ed. Impact of Digital Solutions for Improved Healthcare Delivery. IGI Global, pp. 147-166., (10.4018/979-8-3693-5237-3.ch005)
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2017. Mathematical programming and heuristics for patient scheduling in hospitals: a survey. In: Wickramasinghe, N. ed. Handbook of Research on Healthcare Administration and Management. , pp. 627-645., (10.4018/978-1-5225-0920-2.ch038)
Books
- Gartner, D. 2015. Optimizing hospital-wide patient scheduling. Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems. Springer International Publishing. (10.1007/978-3-319-04066-0)
Conferences
- Williams, E., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2022. Linking predictive and prescriptive analytics of elderly and frail patient hospital services. Presented at: 10th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2022), Rochester, MN, United States, 11-14 June 20222022 IEEE 10th International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI). pp. 1-1., (10.1109/ICHI54592.2022.00071)
- Gartner, D., Williams, E. and Harper, P. 2022. Prescriptive healthcare analytics: a tutorial on discrete optimization and simulation. Presented at: 10th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2022), Rochester, MN, United States, 11-14 June 2022.
- Gartner, D., England, T., Behrens, D., Spernaes, I., Buchanan, J. and Harper, P. 2022. Evaluation of participants’ reaction and learning in a taught analytics and modelling academy program in U.K.’s National Health Service. Presented at: 10th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2022), Rochester, MN, United States, 11-14 June 2022.
- Howells, M., Andrew, L. and Gartner, D. 2022. Modelling the accessibility of adult psychology services using discrete event simulation. Presented at: Hawai’i International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Maui, Hawaii, USA, 3-7 January 2022.
- Lynam, A., Behrens, D. A., Battista-Dowds, E. M., Gartner, D. and Harper, P. 2020. A Monte Carlo simulation model for evaluating the effectiveness of Interventions along the ‘Diabesity’ pathway. Presented at: 8th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics (ICHI 2020), Virtual, 30 November - 3 December 2020Proceedings of the 8th IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics.
- Fleming, R., Gartner, D., Padman, R. and James, D. 2019. An analytical approach for improving patient-centric delivery of dialysis services. Presented at: AMIA 2019 Annual Symposium, Washington, US, 16-20 Nov 2019.
- Abaho, M., Gartner, D., Cerutti, F. and Boulton, J. 2018. Text annotation using textual semantic similarity and term-frequency (Twitter). Presented at: European Conference on Information Systems 2018, Portsmouth, UK, 23-28 June 2018Research Papers. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) pp. 205.
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2017. E-HOSPITAL – A digital workbench for hospital operations and services planning using information technology and algebraic languages. Presented at: 16th World Congress of Medical and Health Informatics, Xiamen, China, 21-25 August 20171MEDINFO 2017: Precision Healthcare through Informatics: Proceedings of the 16th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics IOS Press pp. 84-88.
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2016. Mathematical modelling and cluster analysis in healthcare analytics - the case of length of stay management. Presented at: International Conference on Information Systems, Dublin, 11 December 2016.
- Gartner, D., Zhang, Y. and Padman, R. 2015. Workload reduction through usability improvement of hospital information systems-the case of order set optimization. Presented at: International Conference on Information Systems, Fort Worth, TX, 13-16 December 2015.
- Gartner, D. and Padman, R. 2015. Improving hospital-wide early resource allocation through machine learning. Presented at: 15th World Congress on Health and Biomedical Informatics, Sao Paulo, 19 - 23 August 2015.
- Gartner, D., Arnolds, I. V. and Nickel, S. 2014. Improving hospital-wide patient scheduling decisions by clinical pathway mining. Presented at: Medinfo 2015, Sao Paulo, 19 - 23 August 2015.
Research
Research Interests and Overview
During my PhD, I applied scheduling methods to a health care operations management problem while taking into account uncertainty in patients' lengths of stay and resource availability. However, to apply the models and methods in practice, many parameters have to be determined prior to the schedule calculation. Tackling this challenging problem was one of the tasks I carried out a post-doctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University which is leading in the field of Machine Learning and Healthcare Information Systems. I'm still highly interested to connect these methods and here in Cardiff, I'm working with some collaborators in this area of research.
My overall research objective is to apply quantitative methods to a variety of problems on the strategic, tactical and operational decision levels of healthcare operations. I'm actively searching for collaborations writing grant proposal within the boundaries of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (which is similar to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in Germany). I also strive for collaborations with local research authorities and innovation funds provided by, e.g. Welsh Government and the Health Boards in Wales (especially Aneurin Bevan).
Based on collaborations with Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA but also Karlsruhe Institut of Technologie, I published papers in INFORMS journals, EJOR, Annals of Operations Research but also journals on the intersection between Health Care, Mathematics and Management (e.g. IMA Journal on Management Mathematics or Health Care Management Science).
Here is a short summary of current and past research projects focusing on healthcare:
Hospital-wide Patient Scheduling
The Job Shop Scheuling Problem is a combinatorial Optimization Problem. The goal is to schedule jobs on scarce resources, such that completion times or delays of jobs targets are minimized. Job Shop Scheduling is a classic problem in the manufacturing and service industries. An application is, for example, the machine layout planning. An extension of this problem is the resource-constraint project scheduling problem which considers order relationships between jobs.
In various projects I have developed Job Shop Scheduling models and their extensions for the efficient acquisition of healthcare services. This can also be applied to other industries, in particular steel production or flexible delivery to customers by parcel service providers.
- "Scheduling the hospital-wide flow of elective patients." European Journal of Operational Research, 223(3):689–699, 2014. (together with Prof. Dr. Rainer Kolisch)
- "Handbook of Research on Healthcare Administration and Management, chapter: Mathematical Programming and Heuristics for Patient Scheduling in Hospitals: A Survey, Seite 627–645. IGI Global, 2017." (together with Rema Padman, PhD)
- "Exact and heuristic methods for the hospital-wide therapy scheduling and routing problem." IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, 2018. (together with Prof. Dr. Rainer Kolisch and Dr. Markus Frey)
In another study we conducted with physicians at the University of Munich, we were able to show that Mathematical Programming can help to optimize the mix of reusable and disposable endoscopy equipment in hospitals. This problem can be classified at a strategic level.
- "Cost-efficient employment of reusable and single-use systems through mathematical programming." Anesthesia & Analgesia, 2017. (together with Dr. Günther Edenharter and Dr. Dominik Pförringer).
Machine Learning for the Strategic and Tactical Planning in Healthcare
In the provision of service processes, many parameters are subject to stochastic fluctuations. Strategic planning seeks to predict and aggregate customer flows with high accuracy. This problem is known from the area "Sequential Pattern Mining", which I solved in a work with a doctoral student from Karlsruhe at the chair of Prof. Stefan Nickel. Based on a layout planning problem, the goal was to predict patient flows as accurately as possible and to optimize a hospital layout.
- "Improving Hospital Layout Planning Through Clinical Pathway Mining." Annals of Operations Research, 2018, Volume 263, Issue 1-2, pp 453-477 (together with Ines Verena Arnolds).
Furthermore, in the service industry, customer classes sometimes have to be defined first by being as homogeneous as possible within a group of customers (e.g., age group, buying behavior or product preferences). However, customers of different groups should be as different as possible. In various projects, I have developed clustering models that define customer groups and pursue different goals.
- "Length of stay outlier detection in pediatrics." International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Dublin, 2016. (together with Rema Padman, PhD)
- "Workload Reduction Through Usability Improvement of Hospital Information Systems – The Case of Order Set Optimization. International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)", Fort Worth, TX, 2015. (together with Rema Padman, PhD and Yiye Zhang, PhD)
- "Mathematical programming for cognitive workload reduction in order set optimization." Health Care Management Science, 2018. (together with Rema Padman, PhD and Yiye Zhang, PhD)
Customer demands, which at the operational level, for example, yield an uncertain profit for a company, can be predicted with classification methods. A paper published in the INFORMS Journal on Computing addresses a problem in which the profit function of customers is classified by a machine learning method. Then, based on the customer's assignment to one of more than 500 different classes, a resource allocation decision is made. In a further work it could be shown that methods of machine learning to predict no-shows can give very good results. This is especially important in the provision of services where the resource is very expensive and one wants to minimize opportunity costs.
- "Machine Learning Approaches for Early DRG Classification and Resource Allocation". INFORMS Journal on Computing, 27(4), 2015. (together with Prof. Dr. Rainer Kolisch, Daniel B. Neill, PhD and Rema Padman, PhD)
Research Group
Teaching
I teach the following modules:
- MA0261 – Operations Research
- MAT003 – Communicating and Research Skills
- MAT006 – Supply Chain Modelling
- BST681 – Healthcare Planning Evidence and Analytics
I'm currently supervising the following PhD students:
- Charlotte Marshall (together with Prof. Paul Harper on an EPSRC CASE funded scholarship)
- Matthew Howells (together with Prof. Paul Harper on a EPSRC CASE funded scholarship)
- Elizabeth Williams (together with Prof. Paul Harper on a KESS2 funded scholarship)
- Emma Aspland (together with Prof. Paul Harper on a KESS2 funded scholarship)
- Emily Williams (together with Prof. Paul Harper on a KESS2 funded scholarship)
- John Threlfall (together with Prof. Paul Harper on a KESS2 funded scholarship)
I have co-supervised the following PhD students:
- Sarie Brice (with Prof. Paul Harper on an EPSRC funded scholarship)
- Mark Tuson (with Prof. Paul Harper)
Biography
Education
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Cardiff University)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Cardiff University)
- Master in Medical Informatics (University of Heidelberg)
- Master in Computer Science (Université Lyon I)
- PhD in Operations Management (Technische Universität München)
Previous position
Post Doc in Healthcare Information Systems (Carnegie Mellon University)
Supervisions
Current supervision
John Threlfall
Research student
Elizabeth Williams
Research student
Charlie Marshall
Research student
Matthew Howells
Research student
Contact Details
GartnerD@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 29208 70850
21-23 Senghennydd Road, Room 2.57, Abacus building, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG
+44 29208 70850
21-23 Senghennydd Road, Room 2.57, Abacus building, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG
