“Multi-objective casualty distribution and real-time coordinated transportation scheduling of emergency medical materials” (2026), by Mengran Wan et al. Business and Management research paper. Original abstract below, unchanged. A free PDF is available.

Multi-objective casualty distribution and real-time coordinated transportation scheduling of emergency medical materials

Mengran Wan, Feng Yang, Chunming Ye et al. · October 30, 2026 · Business and Management

Abstract

In recent years, the frequent occurrence of emergencies has resulted in substantial casualties, rendering traditional unidirectional forward rescue models inadequate to cope with the sudden surge in demand for emergency medical materials. Differentiated rescue strategies for different casualty categories can mitigate the surge in emergency medical materials demand, while coordinated forward and reverse rescue integrating casualty allocation and emergency medical material scheduling can reduce deprivation cost and optimize resource allocation. This paper proposes a differentiated rescue strategy that accounts for various types of casualties. We also establish a multi-objective casualty distribution and coordinated transportation scheduling of emergency medical materials model for bidirectional rescue to minimize rescue costs, in which a multimodal transportation strategy is incorporated. To solve this multi-objective problem, we propose an improved hybrid multi-objective Harris hawks-whale optimization algorithm (HMOHH-WOA). Experimental results show that the HMOHH-WOA algorithm achieves better convergence and diversity in the solution set compared to the five multi-objective algorithms when solving this problem. Finally, we demonstrate through case studies that the proposed research problem and solution algorithm can improve the utilization efficiency of emergency medical materials and reduce deprivation cost through better resource allocation.

Free PDF DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-71366-9