A System-Theoretic Approach to Modeling and Analysis of Mammography Testing Process
提出一种基于马尔可夫链的系统理论方法，用于分析乳腺X线检查流程，通过共享资源迭代解决维度问题，评估患者停留时间和员工效率，并以威斯康星大学医学基金会的乳腺影像中心为例验证模型适用性。
Mammography is the standardized testing process for early detection of breast cancer. In this paper, a system-theoretic method based on a Markov chain model is presented to analyze such processes. Specifically, the general testing process in a single exam room is formulated using a Markov chain model. To resolve the dimensionality issue, an iteration method, referred to as shared resource iteration, is introduced to analyze the scenarios of two or more exam rooms. Formulas to evaluate the patient length of stay and staff efficiency are developed. The extension to non-Markovian scenarios is also investigated and an empirical formula is proposed. The experimental results indicate that such a method results in a high accuracy of performance estimation. A case study at a breast imaging center of the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation is presented to illustrate the applicability of the model. In addition, the impact of patient volume increase is also studied, which shows that a capacity increase is necessary to accommodate the high demand.