In a hospital operating room, success depends on more than clinical expertise. How well a medical team works together and how it responds when something unexpected happens affects operational efficiency and surgical care.
At the University of Miami College of Engineering, graduate students are using tools to better understand those team dynamics and explore how data can support surgical team planning. Industrial engineering students Alejandro Diaz Barreiro and Andrea Godoy, along with doctoral student Abdullah Alsaheal, are applying optimization models to examine how surgical teams are formed and how team formation influences efficiency and surgical outcomes.
"In a medical setting, teams naturally rotate," Diaz Barreiro said. "What we wanted to understand is how teams perform together over time and how to support strong collaboration, even when the team changes."
The project builds on prior research by Nurcin Celik, professor of industrial and systems engineering and associate dean for research at the College of Engineering, whose work focuses on simulation and optimization methods for complex decision-making environments. The students extend that foundation by applying those methods as decision-support tools in the operating room.
The study analyzed nearly 2,000 de-identified surgical procedures performed between 2019 and 2022. The dataset included information on team roles, such as surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses, allowing the researchers to evaluate team structure and collaboration rather than focusing solely on individual performance.
"At a fundamental level, we model the operating room as a network of people," Godoy said. "We look at who has worked together and use that information to support team planning."
The model considers required surgical skills and historical collaboration patterns, helping identify team combinations that support quality and continuity. One important concept is network robustness, defined as the ability of teams to remain effective despite changes in staffing or schedules. In simulation, results suggest that more cohesive team structures can enhance efficiency and support improved surgical outcomes.
"What we found is that strengthening the network can be beneficial," Diaz Barreiro said. "You do see real benefits from having teams that are familiar with working together."
The research is being conducted through a collaboration between the Simulation and Optimization Research Laboratory, or SimLab, directed by Celik at the College of Engineering, and the Miami Surgical Outcomes Research Center, or MiSORCe, directed by Mehmet Akcin in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery at UHealth. The partnership highlights collaboration between the College of Engineering and the Miller School of Medicine to apply engineering approaches in clinical settings.
Godoy completed a combined bachelor's and master's program in biomedical and industrial engineering and has accepted a position at Medtronic, where she plans to work in the medical devices field. Diaz Barreiro completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees in industrial engineering and is now applying similar modeling concepts to his master's thesis in sports analytics.
"The idea is similar," he said. "You want the best group on the field, knowing they can perform well together even as things change."
The students hope their work demonstrates how engineering-based optimization models can support team performance across diverse fields by enhancing planning, resilience, and operational efficiency.
