Tutorial: Advances and challenges in healthcare simulation modeling

Simulation has been used for modeling healthcare systems for over forty years. In many respects it is the ideal approach for addressing healthcare issues, yet the relatively small number of successful implementations would suggest that (outside academia) it has been underused in the health sector, compared with manufacturing industry or defense. In this paper we present a review of applications of simulation in healthcare, focusing on successful implementations, and we discuss some possible reasons why simulation has arguably failed to fulfill its potential. We describe recent advances in the area and identify opportunities for further research and new developments.