Department of Geography, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0027, USA.
Telemed J E Health. 2010 Jul-Aug;16(6):670-7. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2010.0002.
Teledermatology provides a partial solution to the problem of accessibility to dermatology services in underserved areas, yet methodologies to determine the locations and geographic dimensions of these areas and the locational efficiency of remote teledermatology sites have been found wanting. This article illustrates an innovative Geographic Information Systems approach using dermatologists' addresses, U.S. Census population data, and the Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing System. Travel-time-based service areas were calculated and mapped for each dermatologist in the state of Kentucky and for possible locations of several remote teledermatology sites. Populations within the current and possible remote service areas were determined. These populations and associated maps permit assessment of the locational efficiency of the current distribution of dermatologists, location of underserved areas, and the potential contribution of proposed hypothetical teledermatology sites. This approach is a valuable and practical tool for evaluating access to current distributions of dermatologists as well as planning for and implementing teledermatology.
远程皮肤病学为解决服务不足地区皮肤病学服务的可及性问题提供了部分解决方案，但确定这些地区的位置和地理维度以及远程远程皮肤病学站点的位置效率的方法一直不尽如人意。本文介绍了一种使用皮肤科医生地址、美国人口普查人口数据和拓扑集成地理编码和参考系统的创新地理信息系统方法。为肯塔基州的每位皮肤科医生和几个远程远程皮肤病学站点的可能位置计算并绘制了基于旅行时间的服务区域。确定了当前和可能的远程服务区域内的人口。这些人口和相关地图允许评估皮肤科医生当前分布的位置效率、服务不足地区的位置以及拟议的远程皮肤病学站点的潜在贡献。这种方法是评估当前皮肤科医生分布以及规划和实施远程皮肤病学的有价值且实用的工具。
