AI planning and scheduling in the medical hospital environment

Hospital management is a hard task due to the complexity of the organization, the costly infrastructure, the specialized services offered to different patients and the need for prompt reaction to emergencies. Artificial Intelligence planning and scheduling methods can offer substantial support to the management of hospitals, and help raising the standards of service. This editorial presents an overview of the achievements reported in therapy planning and hospital management together with a general roadmap of the published research in Artificial Intelligence planning and scheduling. Finally, a discussion for the future research and development in this area concludes the presentation.