The International Conference on Health Care Systems Engineering (HCSE) provided a timely opportunity to discuss statistical analysis and operations management issues in health care delivery systems. The conference took place in Milan between May 22nd and 24th, 2013. Scientists and practitioners discussed new ideas, methods and technologies for improving the operation of health care organizations. The event and this resulting volume emphasize research in the field of health care systems engineering developed in close collaboration with clinicians.¿ Topics applicable to researchers and practitioners include: hospital drug logistics, operating theatres, modelling and simulation in patient care and healthcare organizations, home care services.

Home care services delivery: equity versus efficiency in optimization models.- Redesigning organ allocation boundaries for  liver transplantation in the United States.- A routing problem for test sample collection in home health care.- A two-stage approach for solving assignment and routing problems in home health care services.- Applying the cardinality-constrained approach in health care systems: the home care example.- Synchronization between human resources in home health care context.- Simulation-based analysis of patient flow in elective surgery.- Optimizing efficiency and operations at a large California  safety-net endoscopy center: A modeling and simulation approach.- Analysis of Gastroenterology (GI) clinic: A systems approach.- Operating room joint planning and scheduling.- Risk-aware scheduling of elective surgeries.- Investigating the relationship between resources balancing and robustness in master surgical scheduling.- Expert's evaluation of innovative surgical instrument and operative procedure using haptic interface in virtual reality.- A robust optimization approach for the operating room planning problem with uncertain surgery duration.- The methodological approach to process analysis for robotic surgical procedures: the experience of SAFROS and I-SUR projects.- A whole-system approach to identify the sources of variation in patient flow.- A broader view on health care system design and modeling.- Epidemic state estimation with syndromic surveillance and ILI data using particle filter.- A decision-making approach supporting hospital drug logistics.- Analyzing the impact of lean approach in pharmaceutical supply chain.- Portable optokinetic stimulator for vestibular rehabilitation.- Modeling and simulation of French extended white plan: A hospital evacuation before a forecasted flood.- Using simulation to analyze patient flows in a hospital emergency department in Hong Kong.- Managing a fleet of ambulances to respond to emergency andtransfer patient transportation demands.