A new methodology to design distributed medical diagnostic centers

In a distributed diagnostic center (DDC), patients´ examinations (exams) are performed in remote units (RUs) and the collected data (images, lab exams, etc.) are sent to expertise diagnostic units (DUs) for evaluation. The DDC´s quality of service per exam is considered through several factors, such as patient´s waiting time, RU-DU communicating load, expert´s occupancy, priority, administrative cost, etc. This paper introduces a new methodology for DDC design by controlling the above factors. We consider any RU through exams´ sources and any DU through exams´ buffers and servers. Any exam created by a RU source is temporarily stored into a DU buffer and then is evaluated by a DU server. The proposed methodology is based on a buffers´ model that evaluates the total RU-DU exams´ traffic load, taking into account the sources´ productivity and the exams´ priority. Simulating the exams´ delay in the sources, buffers and servers we affect the DDC´s performance. Simulating results, using real data acquired by Hellenic DDCs in the private domain, are also demonstrated.