Outpatient chemotherapy planning and decision making: a systematic review

Outpatient chemotherapy is experiencing increased demand while available resources are limited and costly. It is important to have efficient planning for outpatient chemotherapy to optimize the utilization of resources while maintaining the optimal quality of care services. This paper provides a comprehensive review of research studies on outpatient chemotherapy planning (OCP) and decision making. A total of 1,262 articles were retrieved from the most prominent databases (Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Science Direct) and other resources, 99 of which passed the inclusion criteria and were included in this study for analysis. A bibliometric analysis was subsequently conducted with a comprehensive classification of studies based on several predefined criteria that included decision level, problem scope, performance metrics and objectives, complexity factors, methodology, and solution methods. The papers are reviewed in structured categories to provide a detailed overview of this field and highlight the areas that need to be focused on, and the gaps and limitations are summarized. Finally, future research trends on OCP and several promising lines of research that are worthy of study in the future are identified and discussed.