RAPID: Variation in Resilience Under Shortages in the Medical Supply Chain

本提案的研究目标是衡量Covid-19对医疗个人防护装备（PPE）供应链的影响，分析新兴的医院资源节约政策，并确定短期和长期解决方案，以提高医疗供应链的弹性。研究小组将特别关注Covid-19作为压力源对个人防护装备的医疗保健最终用户（即医院和医疗诊所）的影响。该小组将重点关注供需的不确定性，并寻求确定最佳政策，以减少对这些最终用户的影响，同时确保护理质量和对医务人员的保护。本研究的主要目的是收集数据并使用优化和分析方法，在Covid-19危机期间协助医疗服务提供者，同时考虑减轻环境影响和增强医疗保健供应链弹性的长期潜力。本研究的方法有两个方面：(1)收集个人防护装备使用和供应链的数据；(2)开发新的鲁棒优化模型。本研究的贡献之一是收集有关实体PPE供应链、医院过去和现在（紧急）使用PPE的数据，以及医院在Covid-19大流行期间制定的新PPE保护政策和实践。为了收集更多数据，研究团队开发了一种新颖的众包数据收集平台，该平台以后也可以用于其他医疗保健数据收集。与此工作并行的另一个特征是开发基于数学场景的PPE供应链和资源分配鲁棒优化模型。研究小组将开发线性和鲁棒优化模型，以分配在需求和供应的巨大不确定性稀缺资源。这些资源分配模型将使用收集到的数据。该小组还将开发基于场景的模型，以测试和验证医院在Covid-19疫情期间使用个人防护装备的不同政策。本研究的预期直接影响是告知卫生保健工作者有关保护个人防护装备的有效政策，从而在Covid-19大流行期间为患者和工作人员带来最佳健康结果。这项工作的结果和收集的数据将尽快提供给医疗界，以帮助管理个人防护装备的需求。具体而言，将编制个人防护装备保护政策，并立即向医学界发布一份文件，以在Covid-19大流行期间广泛帮助节约资源。从长期来看，将与医学界和更广泛的学术界分享为有效减轻保健活动的资源消耗和气候影响而制定的战略。本研究的结果旨在提高医疗供应链和医疗保健业务在危机时期（包括未来的大流行病和与气候有关的灾害）的复原力，以及通过在大流行病之后继续采取合理的资源节约做法，普遍增加减排力度。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research objectives of this proposal are to measure the effects of Covid-19 on the medical Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supply chain, analyze emerging hospital resource conservation policies, and identify short-term and long-term solutions to increase resilience in the medical supply chain. The research team will focus specifically on the effects of Covid-19 as a stressor to healthcare end-users of PPE (i.e., hospitals and medical clinics). The team will focus on the uncertainty of supply and demand and seeks to identify the best policies to reduce the impact for these end-users while ensuring quality of care and protection of medical staff. The primary aim of this study is to collect data and use optimization and analytical methods to assist medical providers during the Covid-19 crisis while also considering the longer-term potential of mitigating environmental impact and increasing resilience in healthcare supply chains. The approach of the study is two-fold: (1) data collection on PPE usage and supply chains, and (2) development of novel robust optimization models. A contribution of this study is to be collection of data on the physical PPE supply chain, hospitals' historic and current (emergency) use of PPE, and emerging PPE conservation policies and practices enacted by hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic. To gather additional data, the research team has developed a novel crowd sourcing data collection platform that can later be adapted for other healthcare data collection as well. An additional feature parallel of this work lies in the development of mathematical scenario-based and robust optimization models for PPE supply chain and resource allocation. The research team will develop linear and robust optimization models to allocate the scarce resources given large uncertainty in demand and supply. These resource-allocation models will use the collected data. The team will also develop scenario-base models to test and validate the different hospital policies for the use of PPE during Covid-19 outbreak. The intended immediate impact of this research is to inform healthcare workers about effective policies for PPE conservation that lead to optimal health outcomes for patients and staff during the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings and the data collected as a result of this work will be made available to the medical community as soon as possible to help manage the need for PPE. Specifically, PPE conservation policies will be compiled, and a paper immediately released to the medical community to broadly help conserve resources during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the longer term, the strategies developed to effectively mitigate resource consumption and climate impacts of healthcare activities will be shared with the medical and the wider academic communities. The results of this study target increased resilience of medical supply chain and healthcare operations during times of crisis, including future pandemics and climate related disasters, as well as a general increase in emissions mitigation by continuing reasonable resource conservation practices beyond the pandemic.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.