Harmony search: Current studies and uses on healthcare systems

Abstract

One of the popular metaheuristic search algorithms is Harmony Search (HS). It has been verified that HS can find solutions to optimization problems due to its balanced exploratory and convergence behavior and its simple and flexible structure. This capability makes the algorithm preferable to be applied in several real-world applications in various fields, including healthcare systems, different engineering fields, and computer science. The popularity of HS urges us to provide a comprehensive survey of the literature on HS and its variants on health systems, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and suggest future research directions. In this review paper, the current studies and uses of harmony search are studied in four main domains. (i) The variants of HS, including its modifications and hybridization. (ii) Summary of the previous review works. (iii) Applications of HS in healthcare systems. (iv) And finally, an operational framework is proposed for the applications of HS in healthcare systems. The main contribution of this review is intended to provide a thorough examination of HS in healthcare systems while also serving as a valuable resource for prospective scholars who want to investigate or implement this method.

Keywords: Evolutionary algorithms; Harmony search; Health care; Medical applications; Meta-heuristics; Optimization.