GAME ON! SERIOUS GAMES IN OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES APPLIED TO HEALTHCARE: A SYSTEMISED LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The effective planning and control of healthcare systems are receiving growing research interest owing to their complexities and the importance of healthcare to society. Techniques in operations research and management science (ORMS) have successfully addressed the challenges associated with healthcare service delivery. Serious gaming and classroom games have proven to be an effective tool for teaching ORMS concepts to be applied to healthcare, since they illustrate complex ideas and theories practically in a realistic setting. This research is a systemised literature review of serious gaming in the ORMS domains. It aims to assess which ORMS games could be adapted to teach ORMS concepts applied to healthcare. The research also assesses whether these games align with experiential learning pedagogy. The research is useful to both academics and practitioners who aim to improve healthcare systems while simultaneously conveying ORMS concepts to a wide audience by means of serious gaming.