HBKU professor applies game theory expertise for PPE supply challenges
04 Feb 2021 - 8:02
Dr. Luluwah Al Fagih (left) and Professor Jean-Christophe Nebel
The Peninsula
In the face of unprecedented global demand for medical resources, Assistant Professor in Engineering Management and Decision Sciences at the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Dr. Luluwah Al Fagih, has developed a game theory-based model that can be deployed to enhance stock management of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Dr. Al Fagih is the lead author for research that suggests the shortages in PPE, which have arisen in many countries during the pandemic, may not necessarily be the result of a national shortage but rather the inefficient distribution of resources in a timely manner. Dr. Al-Fagih collaborated with her PhD student at CSE Khaled Abedrabboh; researchers from the School of Computer Science and Mathematics, Kingston University London, UK; her form
Game theory used to model the impact of earlier stockpiling and increased PPE storage during COVID-19
Kingston University London researchers have used a mathematical model known as a game theory to explore how the challenge of securing sufficient levels of vital personal protective equipment
(PPE) for healthcare workers during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic could have been mitigated.
The need to protect frontline staff and key workers from coronavirus created an extraordinary demand for PPE across the globe in early 2020, resulting in inflated prices as countries competed against each other to secure huge orders of surgical masks, goggles, face shields, gowns, and gloves.
Healthcare worker checks PPE before treating patients. Image: Simon Davis/DFID A study published by researchers at Kingston University (KU) uncovered major shortfalls in the government s sourcing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers on the frontlines of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK last year. The research used mathematical models linked with predictive game theory , and showed that implementing alternative sourcing models developed in the research could have saved the government billions of pounds and increased their storage capacity for the essential protective gear tenfold . The open-access study witnessed KU academics partner with researchers from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar in the application of game theory to group decision making when it came to PPE sourcing during the first wave.