Media releases

• Oscar nods for Ontario-shot film a feather in cap of production industry

  Tuesday, January 23, 2018 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY: 23 January 2018 – R00012

  Major motion pictures being filmed in southern Ontario is nothing new, but a near record-breaking haul of Oscar nominations for Shape of Water is something the Canadian film industry should take pride in, says Brock University film expert Scott Henderson.

  “It’s a reminder of the excellent industry that exists up here,” says Henderson, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film. Shape of Water was filmed in Toronto and Hamilton, and received 13 Oscar nominations Tuesday, Jan. 23 in advance of the March 4 Academy Awards.

  Henderson, who also serves as Executive Director of the Popular Culture Association of Canada, says there were a few surprises in the nominations announcement.

  “I think the thing that stands out the most has to be James Franco’s absence from the Best
  Actor list,” Henderson says. “He won the Golden Globe and then the sexual assault allegations came out, so I think that changed some people’s Oscar votes.”

  In the Best Picture category, the film expert thinks Call Me by Your Name has a legitimate shot at pulling off an upset win, but he thinks too many movies were nominated.

  “I’ve never been a fan of the expanded Best Picture category,” he says. “I liked it when it was five films. It’s just diluted with more than that.”

  Henderson’s department was also paying close attention to the Live Action Short category Tuesday. The department hosts the Brock University Film Series each year, and on Feb. 28 all five finalists in the category will be screened during a special Oscar night event at the Pen Centre’s Landmark Cinemas. For more information, visit the BUFS website.

  Associate Professor Scott Henderson is available for interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Half of all doctor’s appointments start late, but how can the problem be fixed?

  Tuesday, January 23, 2018 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 23 January 2018 – R00011

  As comedian Jerry Seinfeld says about doctor’s office waiting rooms: “There’s no chance of not waiting because they call it the waiting room. They’re going to use it.”

  In two separate studies that included data from more than 650 patients, researchers from Brock University’s Goodman School of Business discovered that around 50 per cent of doctor’s appointments start late. Most often, it was because the physician was running late, rather than the patients.

  Writing about their research recently in The Conversation, Brock Professor of Operations Management Kenneth Klassen and Associate Professor of Operations Management Reena Yoogalingam said the key to fixing the problem of late appointments could be better scheduling.

  “Scheduling would be easy if no one ever ran late,” the pair wrote about their research, which was originally completed in 2013 and 2014. “You could simply spread out the appointments evenly across the day. If treatments always take 10 minutes, then schedule one patient every 10 minutes.”

  The problem is, health care is unpredictable. Appointments sometimes take longer than expected, physicians get interrupted by emergencies, or a doctor or patient arrives late.

  Using simulation modelling from real-world data, Klassen and Yoogalingam’s research discovered creative scheduling could be the answer.

  The first method was to put appointments closer together at the beginning and the end of the day or work session, which keeps physicians busy, but spreads appointments farther apart in between. In this method, if a physician is working a session from 8 a.m. until a noon lunch break, appointments at the start of the day and just before noon might be scheduled eight or nine minutes apart while mid-morning appointments would be 11 or 12 minutes apart.

  The second approach is to book appointments closer together, but in clusters of two or three, with a bit of time in between each cluster. As the day unfolds, the time between appointments shrinks, but the time between clusters increases.

  “The clusters keep physicians busy. The spaces between clusters reduce patient waiting,” the researchers wrote in their Conversation piece which they co-authored with Brock colleague Michael Armstrong, Associate Professor of Operations Research.

  “By keeping physicians busy, effective appointment scheduling helps them see more patients per day. That increased capacity reduces the number of days patients must wait for their appointments,” they wrote.

  Professor of Operations Management Kenneth Klassen and Associate Professor of Operations Management Reena Yoogalingam are available for interviews on the topic.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases