IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0180564.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integer programming for improving radiotherapy treatment efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Ming Lv
  • Yi Li
  • Bo Kou
  • Zhili Zhou

Abstract

Background and purpose: Patients received by radiotherapy departments are diverse and may be diagnosed with different cancers. Therefore, they need different radiotherapy treatment plans and thus have different needs for medical resources. This research aims to explore the best method of scheduling the admission of patients receiving radiotherapy so as to reduce patient loss and maximize the usage efficiency of service resources. Materials and methods: A mix integer programming (MIP) model integrated with special features of radiotherapy is constructed. The data used here is based on the historical data collected and we propose an exact method to solve the MIP model. Results: Compared with the traditional First Come First Served (FCFS) method, the new method has boosted patient admission as well as the usage of linear accelerators (LINAC) and beds. Conclusions: The integer programming model can be used to describe the complex problem of scheduling radio-receiving patients, to identify the bottleneck resources that hinder patient admission, and to obtain the optimal LINAC-bed radio under the current data conditions. Different management strategies can be implemented by adjusting the settings of the MIP model. The computational results can serve as a reference for the policy-makers in decision making.

Suggested Citation

  • Ming Lv & Yi Li & Bo Kou & Zhili Zhou, 2017. "Integer programming for improving radiotherapy treatment efficiency," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-9, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0180564
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180564
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180564
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0180564&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0180564?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marie Matta & Sarah Patterson, 2007. "Evaluating multiple performance measures across several dimensions at a multi-facility outpatient center," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 173-194, June.
    2. Lalit Garg & Sally McClean & Brian Meenan & Peter Millard, 2010. "A non-homogeneous discrete time Markov model for admission scheduling and resource planning in a cost or capacity constrained healthcare system," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 155-169, June.
    3. Shoshana Hahn-Goldberg & Michael Carter & J. Beck & Maureen Trudeau & Philomena Sousa & Kathy Beattie, 2014. "Dynamic optimization of chemotherapy outpatient scheduling with uncertainty," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 379-392, December.
    4. Peter Kolesar, 1970. "A Markovian Model for Hospital Admission Scheduling," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(6), pages 384-396, February.
    5. Conforti, D. & Guerriero, F. & Guido, R., 2010. "Non-block scheduling with priority for radiotherapy treatments," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(1), pages 289-296, February.
    6. Pablo Santibáñez & Vincent Chow & John French & Martin Puterman & Scott Tyldesley, 2009. "Reducing patient wait times and improving resource utilization at British Columbia Cancer Agency’s ambulatory care unit through simulation," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 392-407, December.
    7. Sauré, Antoine & Patrick, Jonathan & Tyldesley, Scott & Puterman, Martin L., 2012. "Dynamic multi-appointment patient scheduling for radiation therapy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 223(2), pages 573-584.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marynissen, Joren & Demeulemeester, Erik, 2019. "Literature review on multi-appointment scheduling problems in hospitals," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 272(2), pages 407-419.
    2. Ridvan Gedik & Shengfan Zhang & Chase Rainwater, 2017. "Strategic level proton therapy patient admission planning: a Markov decision process modeling approach," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 286-302, June.
    3. Guillaume Lamé & Oualid Jouini & Julie Stal-Le Cardinal, 2016. "Outpatient Chemotherapy Planning: a Literature Review with Insights from a Case Study," Post-Print hal-01324488, HAL.
    4. Ahmadi-Javid, Amir & Jalali, Zahra & Klassen, Kenneth J, 2017. "Outpatient appointment systems in healthcare: A review of optimization studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(1), pages 3-34.
    5. Jaime González & Juan-Carlos Ferrer & Alejandro Cataldo & Luis Rojas, 2019. "A proactive transfer policy for critical patient flow management," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 287-303, June.
    6. Camila Ramos & Alejandro Cataldo & Juan–Carlos Ferrer, 2020. "Appointment and patient scheduling in chemotherapy: a case study in Chilean hospitals," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 286(1), pages 411-439, March.
    7. Petra Vogl & Roland Braune & Karl F. Doerner, 2019. "Scheduling recurring radiotherapy appointments in an ion beam facility," Journal of Scheduling, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 137-154, April.
    8. Bruno Vieira & Derya Demirtas & Jeroen B. Kamer & Erwin W. Hans & Louis-Martin Rousseau & Nadia Lahrichi & Wim H. Harten, 2020. "Radiotherapy treatment scheduling considering time window preferences," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 520-534, December.
    9. Kaining Shao & Wenjuan Fan & Zishu Yang & Shanlin Yang & Panos M. Pardalos, 2022. "A column generation approach for patient scheduling with setup time and deteriorating treatment duration," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 2555-2586, July.
    10. Tu-San Pham & Louis-Martin Rousseau & Patrick Causmaecker, 2022. "A two-phase approach for the Radiotherapy Scheduling Problem," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 191-207, June.
    11. Shao, Kaining & Fan, Wenjuan & Lan, Shaowen & Kong, Min & Yang, Shanlin, 2023. "A column generation-based heuristic for brachytherapy patient scheduling with multiple treatment sessions considering radioactive source decay and time constraints," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    12. Agnetis, Alessandro & Bianciardi, Caterina & Iasparra, Nicola, 2019. "Integrating lean thinking and mathematical optimization: A case study in appointment scheduling of hematological treatments," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 6(C).
    13. Dai, Jiajun & Geng, Na & Xie, Xiaolan, 2021. "Dynamic advance scheduling of outpatient appointments in a moving booking window," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(2), pages 622-632.
    14. M. Heshmat & A. Eltawil, 2021. "Solving operational problems in outpatient chemotherapy clinics using mathematical programming and simulation," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 298(1), pages 289-306, March.
    15. Na Geng & Xiaolan Xie, 2022. "Managing Advance Admission Requests for Obstetric Care," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 1224-1239, March.
    16. Xiang Ma & Antoine Sauré & Martin L. Puterman & Marianne Taylor & Scott Tyldesley, 2016. "Capacity planning and appointment scheduling for new patient oncology consults," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 347-361, December.
    17. Yasin Gocgun, 2018. "Simulation-based approximate policy iteration for dynamic patient scheduling for radiation therapy," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 317-325, September.
    18. Hyun-Jung Alvarez-Oh & Hari Balasubramanian & Ekin Koker & Ana Muriel, 2018. "Stochastic Appointment Scheduling in a Team Primary Care Practice with Two Flexible Nurses and Two Dedicated Providers," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(3), pages 241-260, September.
    19. Antoine Legrain & Marie-Andrée Fortin & Nadia Lahrichi & Louis-Martin Rousseau, 2015. "Online stochastic optimization of radiotherapy patient scheduling," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 110-123, June.
    20. Vieira, Bruno & Demirtas, Derya & van de Kamer, Jeroen B. & Hans, Erwin W. & van Harten, Wim, 2018. "A mathematical programming model for optimizing the staff allocation in radiotherapy under uncertain demand," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(2), pages 709-722.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0180564. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.