Simran Lakhani, a PhD scholar of IEOR, presented her research work "Appointment Scheduling of Multiple Classes of Patients for a Diagnostic Medical Facility", supervised by Prof Ashutosh Mahajan, at the 50th Operational Research Applied to Health Services (ORAHS 2024) conference held at the University of Turin, Turin, Italy from 14th July to 20th July 2024.
The talk discussed the challenges of priority scheduling of four types of patients to a diagnostic facility. Patients observe high-waiting times to get an appointment. As the system operates at nearly full capacity, changes in the priority rules are unlikely to affect the waiting times. The talk further discussed the possibilities and impact of enhancing the existing facility and/or outsourcing some patients to other reliable facilities.
The conference being focused on OR applications in healthcare, provided her with the opportunity to present her work to experts in this area. Additionally, several social events were organized throughout the conference to facilitate networking and build connections for future opportunities.
