TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamically optimizing the administration of vaccines from multi-dose vials
AU - Mofrad, Maryam H.
AU - Maillart, Lisa M.
AU - Norman, Bryan A.
AU - Rajgopal, Jayant
N1 - Funding Information:
This work has been supported by National Science Foundation grant CMMI-1131172.
Funding Information:
Bryan A. Norman is an Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and his Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. His research considers both theoretical developments and issues concerning the practical application of operations research models to logistics problems. His research interests primarily focus on supply chain and logistics modeling with particular emphasis on scheduling, facility layout, vaccine supply chains, material flow, and healthcare operations. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and industry. He is a member of IIE and INFORMS.
PY - 2014/7/3
Y1 - 2014/7/3
N2 - Many vaccines are manufactured in large, multi-dose vials that once opened, must be used within a matter of hours. As a result, clinicians (especially those in remote locations) face difficult tradeoffs between opening a vial to satisfy a potentially small immediate demand versus retaining the vial to satisfy a potentially large future demand. This article formulates a Markov decision process model that determines when to conserve vials as a function of time of day, the current vial inventory, and the remaining clinic-days until the next replenishment. The objective is to minimize open-vial waste while administering as many vaccinations as possible. It is analytically established that the optimal policy is of a threshold type. Furthermore, an extensive sensitivity analysis is conducted that speaks to the benefits of consolidating demand, investing in buffer stock, and adopting different vial sizes. Lastly, a practical heuristic is evaluated and shown to perform competitively with the optimal policy.
AB - Many vaccines are manufactured in large, multi-dose vials that once opened, must be used within a matter of hours. As a result, clinicians (especially those in remote locations) face difficult tradeoffs between opening a vial to satisfy a potentially small immediate demand versus retaining the vial to satisfy a potentially large future demand. This article formulates a Markov decision process model that determines when to conserve vials as a function of time of day, the current vial inventory, and the remaining clinic-days until the next replenishment. The objective is to minimize open-vial waste while administering as many vaccinations as possible. It is analytically established that the optimal policy is of a threshold type. Furthermore, an extensive sensitivity analysis is conducted that speaks to the benefits of consolidating demand, investing in buffer stock, and adopting different vial sizes. Lastly, a practical heuristic is evaluated and shown to perform competitively with the optimal policy.
KW - Markov decision process
KW - multi-dose vial
KW - perishable inventory model
KW - vaccine wastage
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84897468876&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/0740817X.2013.849834
DO - 10.1080/0740817X.2013.849834
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84897468876
VL - 46
SP - 623
EP - 635
JO - IIE Transactions (Institute of Industrial Engineers)
JF - IIE Transactions (Institute of Industrial Engineers)
SN - 0740-817X
IS - 7
ER -