Simulation of Emergency Care Systems: A Taxonomy and Future Directions

The Emergency Care System (ECS), comprising pre-hospital and in-hospital sub-systems, is a vital health infrastructure for round-the-clock life-saving care. The ECS is one of the most modelled parts of the health system. In the process of a comprehensive ongoing scoping review of ECS simulation using the methods of Discrete Event Simulation (DES), System Dynamics (SD), and Agent Based Modeling (ABM), we propose a method-agnostic simulation process framework, and use this framework to suggest Research Questions (RQs) that will provide a state-of-the-art view of ECS simulation. Our RQs and the resulting encoding approach guide us to a taxonomy of ECS simulation. This taxonomy addresses potential gaps in understanding the systemic nature of the ECS and its linkages to other parts of the health and social services system. It also helps to conceptualize the attributes of ECS simulation models that will help them to evolve to Digital Twins.