AI planning and scheduling in the medical hospital environment

Hospital management is a hard task due to the complexity of the organizatio n, the costly infrastructure. the specialized services offered to different patients and the need for prompt reaction to emergencies. Artificial Intel ligence planning and scheduling methods can offer substantial support to th e management of hospitals, and help raising the standards of service. This editorial presents an overview of the achievements reported in therapy plan ning and hospital management together with a general roadmap of the publish ed research in Artificial Intelligence planning and scheduling. Finally, a discussion for the future research and development in this area concludes t he presentation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.