Configuration of health pathway networks for patients with chronic diseases

Abstract

Chronic and long-term diseases, particularly neurodegenerative diseases and polymorbidity, are increasingly occupying the medical and socio-medical landscape and are a concern for government policies. These diseases are of particular concern because the care function (waiting for a patient) is complex and does not have the same utility. The objective of this article is to propose a modeling framework for optimizing patient flows through these care centers with the aim of minimizing the overall cost of the care system (i.e. the total cost of consuming these resources) while maximizing utility for patients. Utility (utility matrix) is defined in our article as a matrix valuing each type of care pathway by its utility for a specific category of patient or for their stage of illness. The model is an integer linear program.