The Geographical Distribution of Multiple Sclerosis patients in Kerman City by using Geographic Information System

Background & Objectives: Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease causing disability in . The environmental factors play an important role in disease spread and since youths are affected more, this disease is of a great importance. As the incidence of this disease is not the same around the world, through using geographic information system, the spatial and descriptive data can be used to create maps, tables, and charts for data analysis and preventing the progression of the disease. Methods: In this descriptive study, 1200 Multiple sclerosis patients in Kerman province between 1987 and 2015 were surveyed. After collecting data and spatial data, the geographical distribution map of the disease was prepared. In this base, first, the points were inserted in the Google Earth and then, the locations of patients' accumulation were found by analyzing the hot spots. Results: According to the results, the majority of patients were habitants of the margin of Kerman and in the Salsabil area. The lowest numbers of patients were in Kuhbanan and Kahnouj. Women were affected 3.5 times more than men and the age group of 20 to 30 years old had the highest rate of this disease. Conclusion: Improving urban infrastructures, reducing construction density, controlling traffic problems, and improving the quality of urban life can improve the health of patients. Key¬words: MS Disease, Geographical Distribution Map, Geographic Information System, Kerman Province Citation: Raeisi R, Noghsan Mohammadi MR, Almodaresi SA. The Geographical Distribution of Multiple Sclerosis patients in Kerman City by using Geographic Information System. Journal of Health Based Research 2017; 3(3): 217-226

The tyranny of distance – mapping accessibility to polysomnography services across Australia

This paper finds that remote and very remote communities continue to experience inequity in health care in accessibility to specialist services such as diagnostic sleep studies. Abstract Objectives: To identify service gaps by mapping accessibility to diagnostic sleep studies across Australia using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Methods: Census-level data stratified by statistical areas were mapped to measure accessibility to polysomnography (PSG) based on geographical location of patients. All adult publicly funded home and laboratory-based PSG performed in Australia in 2012 were mapped to statistical areas based on patient address at the time of the sleep study. Results: Sleep health care is extremely under-resourced in central and northern Australia. For those living in areas classified as remote and very remote, geographical distance appears to be a barrier to the accessibility of specialist sleep services. Conclusions: Remote and very remote communities continue to experience inequity in health care in general and in accessibility to specialist services in particular. Attention needs to be given to barriers which may limit equitable accessibility. Implications: Residing in remote communities with limited or no public transport options is likely to have a particularly significantly impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ ability to access PSG. Authored by Woods C, Usher K, Edwards A, Jersmann H, and Maguire G

Pemanfaatan Sistem Informasi Geografis untuk Pemantauan Karies di Wilayah Kerja Puskesmas Ambulu Kabupaten Jember

In line with the development of science and technology, and increasing human needs to make things easier, a technology called Geographic Information System (GIS) was created. Geographical information system (GIS) is a technology which is currently a very essential tool in the process of storing, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying natural conditions (including the utility network) with the help of attribute and spatial data (graphic). Based on the data from the visit reports of Dental Clinic in Ambulu Community Health Center from SP2TP section, the grouping of patients with dental caries is only based on the age of the patient and the working area that has village maternity home and auxiliary health center, so that the available information cannot represent all of the working area. Information on areas with the highest caries population can be the attention of the head of the dental clinic of Ambulu Community Health Center to conduct a promotive and preventive service program in the area. This study aimed to determine the use of geographic information systems for caries monitoring in the working area of Ambulu Community Health Center, Jember Regency. This research uses qualitative research. Based on the research that has been done, it can be concluded that the monitoring of caries in the working area of the Ambulu Community Health Center can be done by utilizing a geographic information system, so that the number of patients who have caries in each region can be known. This information can be used by dentists to plan promotive and preventive service activities that will be carried out

A geographical information systems-based approach to health facilities and urban traffic system in Belgrade, Serbia

We studied the geospatial distribution of health facilities in Belgrade, the capital of the Republic of Serbia, in relation to the public transport system. Analyses in this research were based on advanced geographical information systems using numerical methods. We calculated accessibility to health centres as based on public transport properties accounting for the movement of citizens, as well as patients, through the city. Based on results, the city of Belgrade has a moderate connectivity. Public health centres and a group of other health centres in the central-east part of the city have a better connectivity. Also, in this paper we estimated that the average time necessary to reach health facilities on foot is 100 minutes and by public transport vehicles such as buses, trams and trolleys is 42 minutes

Creating and implementing a system of geolocation for physiotherapy services

The aim of this work was to create a geolocation system for Physiotherapy services. This system will enable Physiotherapists, Physiotherapy clinics and users to locate different Physiotherapy services according to the geographical location. The specific objectives were to create a model of indexing information for Physiotherapists based on their geolocation, personal data, areas of intervention and service agreements; creation of a model of information search; and implementation of a web service that allows indexing and information search of Physiotherapy services for both users and clinicians, based on this various parameters.There are many needs among decision makers regarding the modelling and presentation of health information for better understanding of the phenomena and better management of all resources. The geolocation (Web-based mapping) stands out as an important tool that allows users through systems like Google Maps or Yahoo Maps to access, acknowledge and manage services or monitoring diseases or epidemics. In the context of health care these systems allow a better allocation of resources by health systems as well as a selection and more informed choice by the users.The system methodology involved several stages: 1º Step: the list of requirements was create with the assistance of a group of Physiotherapists, it was determined the set of information considered useful to the end user when viewing the system, including: General information - Physiotherapist personal data, including relevant contacts; Clinical Information - refers to the types of available valances within Physiotherapy services; Administrative Information - refers to agreements and contracts with external entities. The definition of data took into account the end user, the vocabulary was adapted for Physiotherapists and users. 2º Step: Design, system architecture and the creation of the system interface, in both frontend and backend, we opted for the PHP language for the management system and MySQL for the database. 3º Step: The system was set up in a subdomain with its own web access in the last phase of implementation. Users of the system were divided into two types: User looking for Physiotherapy services - this includes patients and other Physiotherapists who refer their clients to other services and users seeking to advertise their Physiotherapy services - this includes Physiotherapists and clinics wishing to register their information on the system aiming to facilitate contacts.Several benefits of using this system were described, including easy management and availability of geographical information for patients and other health professionals, that could promote a possible decrease in costs, time and resources saving, both human and economic in health services access.Today, ICT are increasingly present in the practice of the Physiotherapist, covering new areas and putting at their disposal a wide range of solutions and tools for clinical practice. This system will enable Physiotherapists, Physiotherapy clinics and users to locate different Physiotherapy services, fostering an environment of increasingly shared and equal access to care facilities.N/

Establishment of Brucellosis Relapse and Complications Registry: A Study Protocol

Brucellosis is an endemic bacterial zoonotic disease in developing countries; that is a serious public health problem in Iran. Brucellosis is a life-threatening multi-system disease in human with different clinical manifestations, complications and relapse. The incidence of brucellosis in Hamadan province, west of Iran is high. In addition, there is few reliable and population-based studies regarding relapse and complications of brucellosis in developing countries, therefore establishment of the registry system in areas with adequate occurrence of cases is needed to better understand the predictors of brucellosis relapse and complications and management of the disease. Detecting occurrence of relapse and complications over time and by geographical area provide information for further investigations and identification of health system deficiencies in the management of patients

Distributed Object Medical Imaging Model

Abstract- Digital medical informatics and images are commonly used in hospitals today,. Because of the interrelatedness of the radiology department and other departments, especially the intensive care unit and emergency department, the transmission and sharing of medical images has become a critical issue. Our research group has developed a Java-based Distributed Object Medical Imaging Model(DOMIM) to facilitate the rapid development and deployment of medical imaging applications in a distributed environment that can be shared and used by related departments and mobile physiciansDOMIM is a unique suite of multimedia telemedicine applications developed for the use by medical related organizations. The applications support realtime patients’ data, image files, audio and video diagnosis annotation exchanges. The DOMIM enables joint collaboration between radiologists and physicians while they are at distant geographical locations. The DOMIM environment consists of heterogeneous, autonomous, and legacy resources. The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), and Java language provide the capability to combine the DOMIM resources into an integrated, interoperable, and scalable system. The underneath technology, including IDL ORB, Event Service, IIOP JDBC/ODBC, legacy system wrapping and Java implementation are explored. This paper explores a distributed collaborative CORBA/JDBC based framework that will enhance medical information management requirements and development. It encompasses a new paradigm for the delivery of health services that requires process reengineering, cultural changes, as well as organizational changes

Measuring Spatial Health Disparity Using a Network-Based Accessibility Index Method in a GIS Environment: A Case Study of Hillsborough County, Florida

In recent decades, the health care delivery system in the United States has been greatly transformed and more widely examined. Even with one of the most developed health care systems in the world, the United States still experiences great spatial disparity in health care access. Increasing diversity of class, culture, and ethnicity also has a significant impact on health disparity. The goal of this paper is to address the spatial disparity of health care access using a network-based health accessibility index method (NHAIM) in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. Ensuring a desired level of accessibility for patients is the goal of the health care delivery system, through which health care service providers are supplied to populations in need. GIS plays an increasing role in understanding and analyzing accessibility to health care by incorporating geographical physical barriers, network-based travel time, and transportation costs required for access to health care services. In this study, we develop a NHAIM to examine the spatial disparity in health care access in Hillsborough County, Florida, determining the locations of registered medical doctors and facilities using data from Medical Quality Assurance Services (MQA) and the U.S. Census. This research reveals the spatial disparity of health care accessibility and availability in this region and provides an effective method for capturing health care accessibility surplus and shortage areas for future health care service planning

Developing service supply chains by using agent based simulation

The Master thesis present a novel approach to model a service supply chain with agent based simulation. Also, the case study of thesis is related to healthcare services and research problem includes facility location of healthcare centers in Vaasa region by considering the demand, resource units and service quality. Geographical information system is utilized for locating population, agent based simulation for patients and their illness status probability, and discrete event simulation for healthcare services modelling. Health centers are located on predefined sites based on managers’ preference, then each patient based on the distance to health centers, move to the nearest point for receiving the healthcare services. For evaluating cost and services condition, various key performance indicators have defined in the modelling such as Number of patient in queue, patients waiting time, resource utilization, and number of patients ratio yielded by different of inflow and outflow. Healthcare managers would be able to experiment different scenarios based on changing number of resource units or location of healthcare centers, and subsequently evaluate the results without necessity of implementation in real life.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

IMPROVING HEALTHCARE DELIVERY: LIVER HEALTH UPDATING AND SURGICAL PATIENT ROUTING

Growing healthcare expenditures in the United States require improved healthcare delivery practices. Organ allocation has been one of the most controversial subjects in healthcare due to the scarcity of donated human organs and various ethical concerns. The design of efficient surgical suites management systems and rural healthcare delivery are long-standing efforts to improve the quality of care. In this dissertation, we consider practical models in both domains with the goal of improving the quality of their services. In the United States, the liver allocation system prioritizes among patients on the waiting list based on the patients' geographical locations and their medical urgency. The prioritization policy within a given geographic area is based on the most recently reported health status of the patients, although blood type compatibility and waiting time on the list are used to break ties. Accordingly, the system imposes a health-status updating scheme, which requires patients to update their health status within a timeframe that depends on their last reported health. However, the patients' ability to update their health status at any time point within this timeframe induces information asymmetry in the system. We study the problem of mitigating this information asymmetry in the liver allocation system. Specifically, we consider a joint patient and societal perspective to determine a set of Pareto-optimal updating schemes that minimize information asymmetry and data-processing burden. This approach combines three methodologies: multi-objective optimization, stochastic programming and Markov decision processes (MDPs). Using the structural properties of our proposed modeling approach, an efficient decomposition algorithm is presented to identify the exact efficient frontier of the Pareto-optimal updating schemes within any given degree of accuracy. Many medical centers offer transportation to eligible patients. However, patients' transportation considerations are often ignored in the scheduling of medical appointments. In this dissertation, we propose an integrated approach that simultaneously considers routing and scheduling decisions of a set of elective outpatient surgery requests in the available operating rooms (ORs) of a hospital. The objective is to minimize the total service cost that incorporates transportation and hospital waiting times for all patients. Focusing on the need of specialty or low-volume hospitals, we propose a computationally tractable model formulated as a set partitioning based problem. We present a branch-and-price algorithm to solve this problem, and discuss several algorithmic strategies to enhance the efficiency of the solution method. An extensive computational test using clinical data demonstrates the efficiency of our proposed solution method. This also shows the value of integrating routing and scheduling decisions, indicating that the healthcare providers can substantially improve the quality of their services under this unified framework