Bridging the Healthcare Access Divide: A Strategic Planning Model for Rural Telemedicine Network
提出一个农村远程医疗网络的战略规划模型，结合决策树和逻辑回归估计县级医疗需求，并探讨医疗中心选址、服务覆盖、设备配置和患者出行政策，案例来自美国黑带地区。
ABSTRACT Balancing access to healthcare and sustaining operational efficiency is a major issue in strategic planning of rural healthcare delivery systems. In this regard, telemedicine is being adopted as a versatile and low cost mechanism for delivering rural healthcare. This article presents a strategic planning model that incorporates different operational and service elements of the rural telemedicine healthcare network. Real‐world data from the rural Black‐belt region in the United States are used in a case study. A novel statistical approach based on decision trees and logistic regression is used to estimate demand of healthcare at the county level. Key issues such as the location of telemedicine health centers, coverage of health services, configuration of medical equipment, and patient travel policies are explored in light of patient demographics, scale of health coverage, and disease prevalence patterns. Results indicate that telemedicine networks can effectively improve healthcare services in rural areas with requisite operational efficiency.