Path Optimization of Medical Waste Transport Routes in the Emergent Public Health Event of COVID-19: A Hybrid Optimization Algorithm Based on the Immune–Ant Colony Algorithm

Abstract

In response to the emergent public health event of COVID-19, the efficiency of transport of medical waste from hospitals to disposal stations is a worthwhile issue to study. In this paper, based on the actual situation of COVID-19 and environmental impact assessment guidelines, an immune algorithm is used to establish a location model of urban medical waste storage sites. In view of the selection of temporary storage stations and realistic transportation demand, an efficiency-of-transport model of medical waste between hospitals and temporary storage stations is established by using an ant colony–tabu hybrid algorithm. In order to specify such status, Wuhan city in Hubei Province, China—considered the first city to suffer from COVID-19—was chosen as an example of verification; the two-level model and the immune algorithm–ant colony optimization–tabu search (IA–ACO–TS) algorithm were used for simulation and testing, which achieved good verification. To a certain extent, the model and the algorithm are proposed to solve the problem of medical waste disposal, based on transit temporary storage stations, which we are convinced will have far-reaching significance for China and other countries to dispatch medical waste in response to such public health emergencies.

Optimization of medical waste recycling network considering disposal capacity bottlenecks under a novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak

“…They developed a mixed-integer linear programming model with the objectives of minimum transport time, minimum total number of people violating the time windows, and minimum number of people in waste disposal facilities. Liu et al ( 2020b ) developed a two-stage model considering environmental, traffic, and vehicle load factors for the problem of selecting temporary storage centers for medical waste and actual transportation flow. Kargar et al ( 2020b ) considered all sites where medical waste may be generated in Babol city and developed a model with the objectives of minimizing cost, risk of transportation and disposal facilities, and amount of uncollected waste.…”

Research on Cold Chain Logistics Distribution Route Based on Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm

“…Based on analyzing the characteristics of medical logistics distribution, the literature [14] put forward reasonable assumptions and constraints of the mathematical model of pharmaceutical logistics and constructed the objective function of optimizing the distribution path. Because of the strong ability to acquire better solutions, the ACO paradigm is utilized to reoptimize the objective function.…”

Research on Optimization of Healthcare Waste Management System Based on Green Governance Principle in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Through the previous comparison of the three heuristic algorithms, in view of the high global convergence and applicability of the GA, and easy integration with other algorithms, the GA was used to solve this problem. By comparing the previous three heuristic algorithms, it can be seen that the GA has high global convergence and applicability but low efficiency [ 28 ]. Considering it is easy to combine with other algorithms and the ACO algorithm has a better convergence speed, efficiency, and applicability, a hybrid algorithm combining GA and ACO was established in this paper to optimize the medical waste transportation path by taking advantage of the convergence speed and solving efficiency of both.…”