An adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system for estimating the duration of medical services: A case study

The aim of this study is twofold. First one is to derive a feasible numerical prediction model for the duration of medical services in a medical institution that could be used by the hospital management within their quality assurance and improvement processes. The second aim is to develop a freeware software tool, which implements an adaptive artificial neural network-based fuzzy inference system with a user-friendly interface that can be effectively used by both technical and non-technical people. Some promising results have been obtained which show that both of these objectives have been successfully achieved to some extent.