A Biobjective Approach to Assigning Recreational Activities to Medical Tourists

Year 2023, Volume: 9 Issue: 3, 296 - 306, 30.09.2023

Burak Paç

Abstract

Medical tourism is a growing market due to cost savings for patients and access to treatments unavailable in their home country. Countries offering high-quality medical services at affordable prices have great opportunities for growing their revenue and shares in this market. To increase the welfare of tourists and revenues associated with healthcare tourism, this study proposes a mathematical model for planning the integration of recreational activities to the medical schedules of healthcare tourists. The model achieves this by providing access for medical tourists into appropriate recreational activities based on their medical conditions, availability schedules, and budgets. The proposed integer programming model maximizes a weighted sum of total tourist satisfaction points and profits generated from assigning tourists to recreational activities. It incorporates medical restrictions, ensuring that medical tourists are directed to activities suitable for their medical conditions. The Pareto-efficient frontier for patient satisfaction and company profit is determined utilizing the integer programming model. The proposed model aims for a higher quality experience for health tourists, optimizing their access to recreational activities while promoting economic growth in the health tourism sector. Computational tests demonstrate that the proposed model efficiently solves instance sizes that may arise in practical contexts and enables iterative solutions for obtaining Pareto-efficient frontiers.

Keywords

Integer programming, Medical tourism, Combinatorial optimization

Sağlık Turistlerinin Rekreasyonel Aktivitelere Atanması için İki Amaçlı Bir Yaklaşım

Abstract

Sağlık turizmi, hastalar için maliyet tasarrufu ve ülkelerinde mevcut olmayan tedavilere erişim nedeniyle büyüyen bir pazardır. Yüksek kalitede ve uygun fiyatlı sağlık hizmetleri sunan ülkeler, bu pazarda gelirlerini ve paylarını artırma fırsatına sahiptir. Sağlık turizmi ile ilişkili gelirlerin ve turistlerin refahının artırılması amacıyla, bu çalışma sağlık turistlerinin tıbbi programlarına rekreasyonel aktivitelerin entegrasyonunu planlamak için bir matematiksel model önermektedir. Model, sağlık turistlerine tıbbî durumları, hasta uygunluk programları ve bütçelerini dikkate alarak rekreasyonel aktivitelere erişim sağlar. Önerilen tamsayılı programlama modeli, turistleri rekreasyonel aktivitelere yönlendirerek elde edilen toplam turist memnuniyeti puanı ve şirket kârının ağırlıklı toplamını eniyiler. Hastaların tıbbî çizelgelerinin getirdiği kısıtlamalar modele dahil edilerek sağlık koşullarına uygun aktivitelere yönlendirilmeleri sağlanır. Hasta memnuniyeti ve şirket kârı için Pareto-verimli sınır, tamsayılı programlama modeli kullanılarak belirlenir. Önerilen model sağlık turistleri için daha kaliteli bir deneyim amaçlayarak rekreasyonel aktivitelere erişimi eniyilemekte ve sağlık turizmi sektöründe ekonomik büyümeyi teşvik etmektedir. Hesaplamalı sınamalar göstermektedir ki, önerilen model pratik bağlamlarda ortaya çıkabilecek problem boyutlarını etkin bir şekilde çözebilmekte ve Pareto-verimli sınırları elde etmek için yinelenen çözümlere olanak tanımaktadır.

Keywords

Tamsayılı programlama, Sağlık turizmi, Kombinatoryal eniyileme

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