Abstract
Since the past decades, most of the nature inspired optimization algorithms (NIOA) have been developed and become admired due to their effectiveness for resolving a variety of complex problems of dissimilar domain. Firefly algorithm (FA) is well-known, yet efficient nature inspired swarm intelligence (SI) based metaheuristic algorithm. Since from its initiation, FA has become well-liked between the researchers due to its competence and turn out to be an interesting technique for the practitioners as well as researchers for solving the problems of numerous fields of research such as classifications, clustering, neural networks, biomedical engineering, healthcare as well as other research domain. Moreover, there is an outstanding track record of FA in solving biomedical engineering (BME) and healthcare (HC) problems. Abundant complexities have been worked out with the assist of FA and its variants. By taking these particulars into concern, in this paper, a first ever in-depth analysis has been addressed on the variants, importance, applications as well as enhancements of FA in BME as well as HC. The major intention behind this investigative work is to motivate the researchers to improve and innovate new solutions for multifaceted problems of healthcare and biomedical engineering using FA.