Integrating mathematical optimization in devs for nuclear medicine patient and resource scheduling

Nuclear medicine is a subspecialty of radiology that uses advanced technology and radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. Procedures in nuclear medicine require the use of radiopharmaceuticals, are multi-step, and have to be performed under strict time windows constraints. These characteristics make the scheduling of patients and resources in nuclear medicine challenging. In this work, we integrate DEVS and CPLEX, a mathematical programming optimization software, to develop a simulation-optimization scheduling methodology for nuclear medicine clinics. We report on computational results of the new model based on a real clinic, historical data, and both patient and management performance measures. The results show that new methodology provides on average an increase of 3% on patient throughput and a decrease of 20% on patient waiting time over a scheduling policy that was used in the clinic in the past.