An Ontological Design Model for Integrating Notification, Appointment, and Queue in Healthcare Queue Systems

Healthcare queue systems frequently suffer from prolonged waiting times, overcrowding, and inefficient patient flow management. Although various Queue Management Systems (QMS) have been developed, most existing solutions treat notification, appointment scheduling, and queue management as independent components. This fragmented design limits semantic clarity, adaptability, and reusability. This study proposes an ontology-based design model, termed OntoNAQ, which integrates Notification, Appointment, and Queue (NAQ) into a unified conceptual framework for healthcare queue systems. The study adopts the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) to identify conceptual gaps, design the ontological model, and demonstrate its applicability through prototype mapping and qualitative evaluation. The findings indicate that OntoNAQ provides explicit semantic relationships among NAQ components and serves as a reusable and theoretically grounded conceptual foundation for healthcare queue system design.

@article{Nizam2026,
  title     = {An Ontological Design Model for Integrating Notification, Appointment, and Queue in Healthcare Queue Systems},
  journal   = {International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications},
  volume    = {17},
  number    = {3},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {The Science and Information Organization},
  author    = {Nik Mohd Habibullah Nik Mohd Nizam and Shafrida Sahrani and Mohd Nazri Kama and Abdul Ghafar Jaafar and Mohd Yazid Bajuri and Mohammad Nazir Ahmad},
  doi       = {10.14569/IJACSA.2026.0170322},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.14569/IJACSA.2026.0170322}
}