PenCHORD

Our projects | Current activity | Training courses | Health Service Modelling Associates programme |
What is healthcare modelling?

"In my opinion, the PenCHORD modelling team are the best that we have in this country."

Prof Sir Roger Boyle CBE, former national director for heart disease and stroke at the Department of Health, in response to PenCHORD's presentation of the report from our mapping and reconfiguration of hyperacute stroke services in Wales project.

Providing Operational Research and Modelling services to the NHS

PenCHORD (the Peninsula Collaboration for Health Operational Research and Development) are specialists in helping healthcare professionals, commissioners and patients make informed decisions about change in the NHS using Operational Research (OR). Our research projects use advanced quantitative techniques to model healthcare services and predict the impact of change. Typical projects might include comparison of competing changes to a patient pathway or improving patient access to services. PenCHORD’s research team have extensive experience in communicating the results of modelling research in an engaging and understandable manner, as well as delivering an extensive suite of OR training and capacity building initiatives. Find out more and watch a video introducing our work on the 'What is healthcare modelling?' exposure page.

Areas of expertise

Modelling patient pathways and the impact of proposed changes
Capacity and resource planning in acute and community services
Waiting list management and patient scheduling
Location and capacity analysis of outpatient services

Our projects

PenCHORD has delivered successful research projects across the South West region using a variety of different OR techniques in many different areas of health service operation, including stroke, diabetes, mental health and surgery scheduling. Information on our current and past research projects can be found on our projects page.

Training courses and seminar series

A series of regular, free of charge training courses are run by PenCHORD for NHS staff within Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. These courses are designed for those wishing to learn how to build simple but effective predictive models for their own organisations. In addition, regular seminar events are run for all those working in and around the NHS in the region to hear more about how OR can help improve services. Find out more on our training page.

Health Service Modelling Associates Programme

The Health Service Modelling Associates (HSMA) Programme is an innovative approach to capacity building, which trains NHS staff in the latest advances in computer simulation. The scheme launched in 2016 and six Associates joined the pilot programme. The selected individuals worked in NHS organisations across the region and were released from their substantive role for one day a week to undertake advanced modelling, simulation and analysis work on specific projects within their own organisations. To find out more please visit our HSMA page.