Development of an Improved Scheduling Algorithm for Lab Test Operations on a Small-Size Bio Robot Platform

Abstract

B lood tests are one of the core processes in the clinical laboratory test field. In hospitals, an automated process called total laboratory automation (TLA), which relies on a set of sophisticated equipment, is normally adopted for the tests. Noting that the TLA system typically has a large footprint and requires a significant amount of power, slim, and easy-to-move blood test equipment is necessary for some specific demands such as emergency rooms or small-size local clinics. Although various portable blood test systems are introduced and popularly used in many labs, the test processes of these systems are not usually flexible. In the present work, a new scheduling algorithm called reduced idle time (RIT) is developed for a small-scale portable Bio Robot platform. The RIT can successfully handle a series of components of the Bio Robot such as a liquid handler, six incubators, a newly developed spectrophotometer, and a robot arm. It also shows an enhanced effectiveness in terms of the testing time reduction when it is tested with the developed robot platform. Additionally, the RIT shows a fairly flexible capability to accommodate new incoming samples that might interrupt an on-going process and requires an immediate rescheduling. ( JALA 2010;15:15-24)

Organizing timely treatment in multi-disciplinary care

“…[42] schedule various (partially ordered) nurse tasks that have to be performed in a day horizon. Scheduling tasks on one day is also done for laboratories [16,160] and sterilization practices [148].…”

“…Used methods include mathematical programming [16,43,45,51,70,88 [43,51,83,88,110,116,141,160,178], simulation [15], genetic algorithms [16,44,45,88,115,141], local search methods [42], and data mining [15,44].…”

Organizing integrated processes in cancer care

“…A block appointment system is used in [181] to schedule treatment appointment series in a specialty clinic, where patients are assigned to arrive at the start of a time block. Scheduling tasks on one day is also done for laboratories [16,277] and sterilization practices [263].…”

“…Hierarchical level 181,197,236,254,265,273,313], heuristics [67,76,143,148,181,198,241,277,313], simulation [15], genetic algorithms [16,68,69,148,197,241], local search methods [66], and data mining [15,68]. For online planning, we found 21 papers.…”

“…System performance in flow-shop systems, is measured by means of completion times, throughput times, tardiness, the number of patients admitted, utilization, and overtime [25,50,147,175,178,263,266,277]. Due to the sequencing relations in a flow-shop system, flexibility in the planning is limited.…”