Project description

Urban Emergency Medical Services (uEMS) actuate in highly dynamic environments where demand and traffic conditions change during the day. Moreover, EMS demand is heterogeneous and system performance should focus on victims’ outcome rather than in the operational performance. Nevertheless, different models have been proposed in the last decades but what might look optimal on paper might not correctly translate into practice, thus practical/ empirical evidences are needed.

The thesis objective is to analyse three planning layers (Long-term, mid-term and short-term planning) and how they perform in the urban environment, accounting for: people location, traffic behaviour and survival. A methodology is developed where we build a data-driven simulation of the system to assess planning solutions and provide empirical proof of its decision performance. With this we can provide decision-makers with a tool that better assess and propose strategic and tactical solutions, and inform of relevant factors at each planning stage.

Research team

• Marco Amorim
• António Couto (supervisor)
• Sara Ferreira (co-supervisor)

Financial support

• PhD Scholarship granted by FCT, under the MIT-Portugal Program

Stage of progress

• Concluded in 2019