Leveraging machine learning and prescriptive analytics to improve operating room throughput

Successful days are defined as days when four cases were completed before 3:45pm, and overtime hours are defined as time spent after 3:45pm. Based on these definitions and the 460 unsuccessful days isolated from the dataset, 465 hours, 22 minutes, and 30 seconds total overtime hours were calculated. To reduce the increasing wait lists for hip and knee surgeries, we aim to verify whether it is possible to add a 5th surgery, to the typical 4 arthroplasty surgery per day schedule, without adding extra overtime hours and cost at our clinical institution. To predict 5th cases, 301 successful days were isolated and used to fit linear regression models for each individual day. After using the models' predictions, it was determined that increasing performance to a 77% success rate can lead to approximately 35 extra cases per year, while performing optimally at a 100% success rate can translate to 56 extra cases per year at no extra cost. Overall, this shows the extent of resources wasted by overtime costs, and the potential for their use in reducing long wait times. Future work can explore optimal staffing procedures to account for these extra cases

The effects of long-term testosterone treatment on endocrine parameters in hypogonadal men: 12-year data from a prospective controlled registry study.

Testosterone therapy (TTh) is the primary treatment for aging men with functional hypogonadism. Whilst the benefits of testosterone (T) replacement are well-evidenced, the long-term data for TTh on metabolic and endocrine parameters is limited. Here we present the effect of TTh on endocrine parameters in hypogonadal men at a 12-year follow-up. In this single-centre, cumulative, prospective, registry study, 321 hypogonadal men (mean age: 58.9 years) received testosterone undecanoate injections in 12-week intervals for up to 12 years. Blood samples were taken at every other visit to measure levels of total T (TT), calculated free T, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), estradiol, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), progesterone and prolactin. We observed an increase in TT of 15.5 nmol/L (p p p p p p p < 0.0001) were demonstrated at 12-years. The levels of prolactin remained unchanged. Long-term TTh altered hormonal parameters to predictably modify the endocrine system. These effects were sustained during the entire observation time of 12 years