Discrete Event Simulation to Evaluate Different Treatments of Diabetic Retinopathy Disease

Abstract

Modeling approach using discrete event simulation has been proven to work well in modeling in health care. The aim of our paper is to propose a simula tion approach which shows realistic models presenting different possibl e treat ments in different stages of diabetic retinopathy. We have presented three models in order to choose the best treatment for diabetic retinopathy patients. The first model describes the flow of a patient through stages without any medical treatments. It takes 13 years to reach blindness. The second model which includes the laser photocoagulation treatments leads to blindness after 46 years. Then, the third model illustrates the involvement of vitrectomy operation and delays blindness by 23 years. To construct the models, data were taken from experienced doctors and professors of the ophthalmology department in the University hospital Habib Bourguiba and the endocrinology department in the University hospital Hedi Chaker in Sfax, Tunisia. Our objective is to delay reaching the blindness stage as late as possible. Three models were developed, verified and validated through many iterative implementations with ARENA simulation software.