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Scientific article
Review
OA Policy
English

Use of physical accessibility modelling in diagnostic network optimization: a review

Contributors

Chenes, Camille Janique Cécile; Albert, Heidi; Kao, Kekeletso; Ray, Nicolas

Published in

Diagnostics, vol. 12, no. 1, 103

Publication date

2022-01-04

First online date

2022-01-04

Abstract

Diagnostic networks are complex systems that include both laboratory-tested and community-based diagnostics, as well as a specimen referral system that links health tiers. Since diagnostics are the first step before accessing appropriate care, diagnostic network optimization (DNO) is crucial to improving the overall healthcare system. The aim of our review was to understand whether the field of DNO, and especially route optimization, has benefited from the recent advances in geospatial modeling, and notably physical accessibility modeling, that have been used in numerous health systems assessment and strengthening studies. All publications published in English between the journal's inception and 12 August 2021 that dealt with DNO, geographical accessibility and optimization, were systematically searched for in Web of Science and PubMed, this search was complemented by a snowball search. Studies from any country were considered. Seven relevant publications were selected and charted, with a variety of geospatial approaches used for optimization. This paucity of publications calls for exploring the linkage of DNO procedures with realistic accessibility modeling framework. The potential benefits could be notably better-informed travel times of either the specimens or population, better estimates of the demand for diagnostics through realistic population catchments, and innovative ways of considering disease epidemiology to inform DNO.

Keywords

  • Diagnostic network optimization
  • Physical accessibility
  • Referral system

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

CHENES, Camille Janique Cécile et al. Use of physical accessibility modelling in diagnostic network optimization: a review. In: Diagnostics, 2022, vol. 12, n° 1, p. 103. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12010103

Main files (1)

Article (Published version)
CC BY-4.0

Secondary files (1)

Appendix

Identifiers

Additional URL for this publication

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/12/1/103

Journal ISSN

2075-4418
335views
145downloads

Technical informations

Creation

06/01/2022 12:38:00

First validation

06/01/2022 12:38:00

Update

16/03/2023 02:29:33

Status update

16/03/2023 02:29:32

Last indexation

10/06/2025 21:44:56
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