In the COVID-19 pandemic, results of simulation modelling have made headlines as governments around the world looked to simulation modelling to help inform their decisions to manage this crisis. The unprecedented and rapidly-evolving nature of the crisis meant that models needed to be rapidly built under conditions of significant uncertainty. In this session, we invite research and operational modelling related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including, but not limited to, models of disease transmission, public health and health system response, hospital capacity and workflow planning, health-related supply chain risk management, and strategies to help regions manage and exit from this crisis. We also encourage contributions that discuss insights from building simulation models in this highly unusual time, such as the technical challenges in responding to the constantly evolving public health crisis, adaption of existing models to fit this novel and emerging public health crisis, communicating model inputs and results, and learnings from working with decision makers as part of the COVID-19 response.
Key topics: COVID-19, Public health, Dynamic simulation models