MEDIATE - Molecular DockIng at homE: Turning collaborative simulations into therapeutic solutions.

Introduction: Collaborative computing has attracted great interest in the possibility of joining the efforts of researchers worldwide. Its relevance has further increased during the pandemic crisis since it allows for the strengthening of scientific collaborations while avoiding physical interactions. Thus, the E4C consortium presents the MEDIATE initiative which invited researchers to contribute via their virtual screening simulations that will be combined with AI-based consensus approaches to provide robust and method-independent predictions.

Simulation and optimization models for emergency medical systems planning.

The authors address strategic planning problems for emergency medical systems (EMS). In particular, the three following critical decisions are considered: i) how many ambulances to deploy in a given territory at any given point in time, to meet the forecasted demand, yielding an appropriate response time; ii) when ambulances should be used for serving nonurgent requests and when they should better be kept idle for possible incoming urgent requests; iii) how to define an optimal mix of contracts for renting ambulances from private associations to meet the forecasted demand at minimum cost. In particular, analytical models for decision support, based on queuing theory, discrete-event simulation, and integer linear programming were presented.