An approximate dynamic programming approach to network-based scheduling of chemotherapy treatment sessions

A solution approach is proposed for the interday problem of assigning chemotherapy sessions at a network of treatment centres with the goal of increasing the cost-efficiency of system-wide capacity use. This network-based scheduling procedure is subject to the condition that both the first and last...

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Veröffentlicht in:International journal of production research Jg. 62; H. 12; S. 4314 - 4330
Hauptverfasser: Wenzel, Arturo, Sauré, Antoine, Cataldo, Alejandro, Rey, Pablo A., Sánchez, César
Format: Journal Article
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: London Taylor & Francis 17.06.2024
Taylor & Francis LLC
Schlagworte:
approximate dynamic programming
Chemotherapy
chemotherapy scheduling
Dynamic programming
linear programming
markov decision processes
Markov processes
Operating costs
OR in health services
Scheduling
Simulation
Chile
Santiago Chile
ISSN:0020-7543, 1366-588X
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Zusammenfassung:A solution approach is proposed for the interday problem of assigning chemotherapy sessions at a network of treatment centres with the goal of increasing the cost-efficiency of system-wide capacity use. This network-based scheduling procedure is subject to the condition that both the first and last sessions of a patient's treatment protocol are administered at the same centre the patient is referred to by their oncologist. All intermediate sessions may be administered at other centres. It provides a systematic way of identifying effective multi-appointment scheduling policies that exploit the total capacity of a networked system, allowing patients to be treated at centres other than their home centre. The problem is modelled as a Markov decision process which is then solved approximately using techniques of approximate dynamic programming. The benefits of the approach are evaluated and compared through simulation with the existing manual scheduling procedures at two treatment centres in Santiago, Chile. The results suggest that the approach would obtain a 20% reduction in operating costs for the whole system and cut existing first-session waiting times by half. A key conclusion, however, is that a network-based scheduling procedure brings no real benefits if it is not implemented in conjunction with a proactive assignment policy like the one proposed in this paper.
Bibliographie:ObjectType-Article-1
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ISSN:0020-7543
1366-588X
DOI:10.1080/00207543.2023.2259502