{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,3]],"date-time":"2026-05-03T03:06:58Z","timestamp":1777777618793,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":10,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2-3","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Surgical instrument costs, including sterilization, tray assembly, and repurchase, contribute heavily to hospital operating expenses. Over time, trays often accumulate infrequently used instruments, increasing costs. We present a data-driven optimization model for surgical tray design, developed using point-of-use surgical instrument data collected in partnership with OpFlow, a healthcare technology firm. This model streamlines trays and suggests specialized tray composition, improving instrument utilization and delivering significant cost savings. We validated the model through out-of-sample testing and expert review, demonstrating its superiority over both current practices and expert-led reconfiguration. Implementation at UNC Rex Hospital achieved a projected $1.39 million in annual savings for a representative set of trays. Our analysis proves the value of point-of-use data and scalable algorithms for surgical tray optimization. The successful collaboration between academia and industry in this work highlights a path toward further data-driven innovations in healthcare operations.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>This work summarizes the deployment of a data-driven approach to surgical tray optimization; further background and technical details can be found in the following journal articles: Deshpande et al. (2023), Knowles et al. (2021), and Wood et al. (2021).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1561\/0200000116-3","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]],"date-time":"2025-03-12T10:02:35Z","timestamp":1741773755000},"page":"67-100","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Data-Driven Approach to Optimize Surgical Instrument Trays"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Joshua J.","family":"Barrett","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for the Business of Health, Kenan-Flagler Business School, ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vinayak","family":"Deshpande","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School, ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Martyn","family":"Knowles","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"UNC Rex Hospital , Raleigh, NC"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sandeep","family":"Rath","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Kenan-Flagler Business School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Rowe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Operative Flow Technologies, Raleigh, NC ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Benjamin C.","family":"Wood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Operative Flow Technologies, Raleigh, NC ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"140","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"2026033114024398200_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"327","DOI":"10.1080\/24725579.2019.1620383","article-title":"A biobjective optimization approach for configuring surgical trays with ergonomic risk consideration","volume":"9","author":"Ahmadi","year":"2019","journal-title":"IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering"},{"issue":"5","key":"2026033114024398200_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1874","DOI":"10.1287\/opre.2022.2426","article-title":"Data-driven surgical tray optimization to improve operating room efficiency","volume":"72","author":"Deshpande","year":"2023","journal-title":"Operations Research"},{"issue":"3","key":"2026033114024398200_ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1070","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejor.2018.05.051","article-title":"Solution methods for the tray optimization problem","volume":"271","author":"Dollevoet","year":"2018","journal-title":"European Journal of Operational Research"},{"key":"2026033114024398200_ref004","article-title":"Stiffening headwinds challenge health systems to grow smarter","author":"Goldsmith","year":"2018"},{"key":"2026033114024398200_ref005","first-page":"680","article-title":"A goal programming approach to the tray optimization problem","volume-title":"IIE Annual Conference. 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