Scheduling lectures in a teaching hospital

A modelling technique has been devised that can be used to assist in scheduling lectures for medical students in teaching hospitals. The model takes into account the various clinical commitments that are faced by students and the fact that some of these commitments have a fixed timetable while others are relatively flexible. A simple model is framed for the conflict caused by a particular lecture period in terms of the number of commitments which clash. A computer program has been written that produces graphical output illustrating the effects of various scheduling options. The output from the computer program can be used by decision-makers to examine different options for scheduling lectures and also to explore the effects of rescheduling other clinical activities where there is flexibility so to do.