Our Healthcare Lead, Dr Aoife Hunt, has published her research on simulating hospital evacuation.
In hospitals, the evacuation of those with severe movement impairments can be highly problematic for the patients, for the staff and for other evacuees. It is critical to understand the performance of horizontal and vertical evacuation procedures, including the means by which people with reduced mobility can be assisted during stair descent. You can read the research here.
While originally designed for fire evacuation, our algorithms now enable us to model the movement of staff and patients within a hospital for non-emergency situations also. This means we can better support hospitals in their COVID-19 social distancing planning, as well as their emergency planning.