Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology / Robert L. Larson / Bradley J. White / Applying systems methods to cattle production requires investigators to think about whole systems when addressing study objectives. The research conducted for this dissertation emphasized studying whole systems using different methods. We studied cattle production systems through mathematical simulation and new indirect monitoring technologies. While the methods used for the research in this dissertation may be very different, all utilized systems methods to address the study objectives. Firstly, we applied systems thinking methods and developed a dynamic, deterministic systems simulation of cow-calf production over a 10-year horizon. This model was used to investigate the effects the duration of postpartum anestrus (dPPA) has on reproductive performance. A large range of dPPA have been reported, so various primiparous cow and multiparous cow dPPA were simulated. We found that increasing the dPPA for primiparous and multiparous cows had a negative impact on herd performance and that the dPPA is an important factor in determining cow-calf performance success. We then used the cow-calf simulation to explore the effects of breeding nulliparous cows prior to the rest of the herd, known as providing Heifer Lead Time (tHL). We found that increasing tHL improved herd performance, especially with longer dPPA for primiparous cows. Secondly, real-time location systems (RTLS) were used to indirectly monitor cattle behavior. These systems have been used to determine the amount of time cattle spend at eating and drinking locations. We modeled the probability of cattle participating in eating and drinking behavior when determined to be at these locations by RTLS and found that significant differences exist between individual calves and period of the day. Finally, we explored associations between bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and animal-to-animal contacts as determined by RTLS in beef cattle. We found that the probability of BRD diagnosis was associated with the amount of time 4 days’ ago that a calf was in calf-contact with calves assumed to be shedding BRD pathogens.

Rising infection rates in healthcare is a global issue that causes complications for the patient, extended hospital stay, financial difficulties, and even death. One of the crucial factors that reduce those infections is better hand hygiene. Due to the lack of automated systems that can help monitoring hand hygiene compliance and reporting on collected data, some hospitals use direct observations, surveys, dispensers usage measurements and other such methods to monitor the compliance of care providers. This thesis proposes an alternative system that takes advantage of emerging off-the-shelf infrastructures in hospitals, and in particular of Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) and intelligent hand sanitizer dispensers. Our RTLS-based system improves upon the current methods by enabling interactions with care providers through notifications when they do not execute expected hand hygiene actions during care processes, even for fine-grained location situations and by introducing the concept of intelligent dispensers. RHMNS (RTLS-based Hand Hygiene Monitoring and Notification System) has two approaches (time-based and activation-based) that are sharing the same structure but they are different in their way of deciding on taken or missed hand hygiene opportunities. RHMNS also provides informative reports about hand hygiene compliance and trends.

Long wait times are a global issue in the healthcare sector, particularly in Canada. Despite numerous research findings on wait time management, the issue persists. This is partly because for a given hospital, the data required to conduct wait times analysis is currently scattered across various information systems. Moreover, such data is usually not accurate (because of possible human errors), imprecise and late. The whole situation contributes to the current state of wait times. This thesis proposes a location-aware business process management system for real-time care process monitoring. More precisely, the system enables an improved visibility of process execution by gathering, as processes execute, accurate and granular process information including wait time measurements. The major contributions of this thesis include an architecture for the system, a prototype taking advantages of commercial real-time location system combined with a business process management system to accurately measure wait times, as well as a case study based on a real cardiology process from an Ontario hospital.

Long wait times are a global issue in the healthcare sector, particularly in Canada. Despite numerous research findings on wait time management, the issue persists. This is partly because for a given hospital, the data required to conduct wait times analysis is currently scattered across various information systems. Moreover, such data is usually not accurate (because of possible human errors), imprecise and late. The whole situation contributes to the current state of wait times. This thesis proposes a location-aware business process management system for real-time care process monitoring. More precisely, the system enables an improved visibility of process execution by gathering, as processes execute, accurate and granular process information including wait time measurements. The major contributions of this thesis include an architecture for the system, a prototype taking advantages of commercial real-time location system combined with a business process management system to accurately measure wait times, as well as a case study based on a real cardiology process from an Ontario hospital.

This thesis is focused on explanation of RFID technology. The first part analyses its historical development, describes the basic elements needed for its operation and standards enabling its spread into the supplier-customer chains. Furthermore are summarized its common applications such as systems for real-time location, traceability and identification of persons. Finally is summarized its usage in particular economic sectors. The end of the thesis is focused on suitable procedures for implementation of RFID technology into the enterprise, with respect to a feasibility of the project, which is determined in the initial study based on the methodology MMDIS.