Patent ID: 8229761

Claim:
A method for forecasting radiology read demand and radiologist staffing within a future time period, comprising: obtaining, at a computer system, historical demand information from historical data values of radiology read requests, the historical data values recorded during a past period of time wherein the past period of time provides one or more equivalent characteristics to the future period of time; obtaining, at the computer system, future demand information relating to changes to radiologist availability and radiology read request volume expected to occur prior to or during the future period of time; forecasting, with the computer system, based on the historical demand information and the future demand information, a probability and timing of the changes to radiologist availability and radiology read request volume expected to occur prior to or during the future period of time; calculating, with the computer system, expected radiology availability for the future period of time by factoring the forecasted probability and timing of the changes to radiologist availability; calculating, with the computer system, expected radiology read request volume for the future period of time by modifying the historical data values with the forecasted probability and timing of the changes to radiology read request volume; and comparing, with the computer system, the expected radiology read request volume with the expected radiologist availability for the future period of time, thereby predicting any shortfall or excess in radiologist staffing levels; wherein the method for forecasting is performed for predicting any shortfall or excess in radiologist staffing levels based on a plurality of constraints related to matching selected radiologists to demand from selected medical facilities, the constraints including one or more of radiologist specialties, radiology procedure types, radiologist credentialing, radiologist licensing, radiologist scheduling, radiologist availability, radiologist efficiencies, radiologist preferences and restrictions, medical facility preferences and restrictions, and medical facility location.