Diagnostic delay remains a leading source of preventable harm across healthcare systems. Yet, it is rarely modelled as the temporally ordered sequence of missed or deferred actions that it truly is. This conceptual systems paper reframes diagnostic delay as a sequence-detectable phenomenon and introduces a novel architectural response: the time-to-action sequence detection and mitigation architecture (TASDMA). TASDMA integrates clinical AI system architectures, EHR intelligence ecosystems, and real-time decision support pipelines into a single governance-ready infrastructure that continuously monitors care sequences, forecasts delay propagation, and triggers time-bounded actions before harm accrues. Drawing exclusively on peer-reviewed literature, the framework synthesises advances in healthcare analytics infrastructures, interoperability frameworks, and AI governance without empirical training or performance claims. Three interpretive equations formalise risk propagation, decision confidence decay, and governance load under sequence drift. The architecture is presented as a five-layer, closed-loop orchestration model with bidirectional feedback topology specifically engineered for deployment within existing EHR ecosystems. By shifting the analytic focus from static risk scores to dynamic sequence surveillance, TASDMA offers a theoretical foundation for next-generation clinical decision support that treats time itself as the primary therapeutic variable. The manuscript delineates the infrastructural, interoperability, and governance requirements for safe, equitable scaling across diverse care delivery environments.
Failure to follow up after abnormal screening results is a persistent ambulatory safety problem. Because the diagnostic process often spans patient notification, scheduling, primary care review, and reminder outreach, delays may emerge gradually before they become visible in registry reports. Existing care gap reports commonly classify results as closed or open after a defined time window. This retrospective framing limits the ability to detect patients who are currently moving toward delayed diagnostic resolution. The objective of this article is to describe a predictive model that estimates the probability of delayed diagnostic follow-up after an abnormal screening result. The proposed model integrates patient engagement signals, scheduling activity, clinician workload, result severity, and reminder history. The model would use a gradient-boosted classification framework trained on historical abnormal results and longitudinal care-process features. Inputs would be extracted from patient portals, scheduling systems, primary care workload records, laboratory and radiology result metadata, and reminder logs. Conceptually, the model would generate a daily updated risk score for each unreconciled abnormal result. It would also identify the dominant drivers of risk, such as unread portal messages, repeated appointment cancellations, limited primary care availability, high-severity findings, or escalating reminder activity. A predictive approach could shift delayed follow-up management from retrospective audit to proactive prioritization. By identifying patients at greatest risk before the diagnostic window closes, care teams could better allocate outreach and navigation resources.