"The first known study to explore optimal outpatient exam scheduling, given the flexibility of inpatient exams, has resulted in shorter wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patients at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington," reports the Daily Times Chronicle.

"A team of researchers from Dartmouth Engineering and Philips worked to identify sources of delays for MRI procedures at Lahey Hospital in order to optimize scheduling and reduce overall costs for the hospital by 23 percent."

..."'Mathematical models and algorithms are crucial to improve the efficiency of healthcare systems, especially in the current crisis we are going through. By analyzing the patient data, we found that delays were prominent because the schedule was not optimal,' said first author Yifei Sun, a Dartmouth Engineering PhD candidate. 'This research uses optimization and simulation tools to help the MRI centers of Lahey Hospital better plan their schedule to reduce overall cost, which includes patient waiting time.'"

..."'We also provided suggestions for hospitals that don't have optimization tools or have different priorities, such as patient waiting times or idle machine times,' said Sun, who worked on the paper with her advisor Vikrant Vaze, the Stata Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth."

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