A modeling methodology dedicated to simulation and based on generic meta-models using MDA-UML: an application to a chronic renal dialysis unit

Due to various reforms of the health care systems, hospitals must rationalize their costs while guaranteeing a good quality of service. So, hospital managers have to evaluate different scenarios of health care unit management. Simulation can be used to evaluate performances related to the reorganization. But the elaboration of simulation models is not an easy task. In this article, we propose a modeling methodology dedicated to performance evaluation by discrete-event simulation. This methodology is based on a meta-model approach using MDA (Model Driven Architecture) and UML (Unified Modeling Language). The meta-models (specified in using UML diagrams) are specialized in order to model a system class (in our case, the hospital system class). Afterwards the obtained model is instantiated allowing to generate in a semi-automatic way the simulation model. A part of the methodology is illustrated with a case study concerning a chronic renal dialysis unit.