CyberGIS Center for Advanced Digital and Spatial Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA.
Int J Health Geogr. 2020 Sep 14;19(1):36. doi: 10.1186/s12942-020-00229-x.
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has infected millions of people and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. While COVID-19 has overwhelmed healthcare resources (e.g., healthcare personnel, testing resources, hospital beds, and ventilators) in a number of countries, limited research has been conducted to understand spatial accessibility of such resources. This study fills this gap by rapidly measuring the spatial accessibility of COVID-19 healthcare resources with a particular focus on Illinois, USA.
The rapid measurement is achieved by resolving computational intensity of an enhanced two-step floating catchment area (E2SFCA) method through a parallel computing strategy based on cyberGIS (cyber geographic information science and systems). The E2SFCA has two major steps. First, it calculates a bed-to-population ratio for each hospital location. Second, it sums these ratios for residential locations where hospital locations overlap.
The comparison of the spatial accessibility measures for COVID-19 patients to those of population at risk identifies which geographic areas need additional healthcare resources to improve access. The results also help delineate the areas that may face a COVID-19-induced shortage of healthcare resources. The Chicagoland, particularly the southern Chicago, shows an additional need for resources. This study also identified vulnerable population residing in the areas with low spatial accessibility in Chicago.
Rapidly measuring spatial accessibility of healthcare resources provides an improved understanding of how well the healthcare infrastructure is equipped to save people's lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are relevant for policymakers and public health practitioners to allocate existing healthcare resources or distribute new resources for maximum access to health services.
导致 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）已经感染了数百万人，并导致数十万人死亡。虽然 COVID-19 已经使许多国家的医疗资源（例如医护人员、检测资源、病床和呼吸机）不堪重负，但对于了解这些资源的空间可达性的研究却很有限。本研究通过快速测量 COVID-19 医疗资源的空间可达性来填补这一空白，重点关注美国伊利诺伊州。
通过基于网络地理信息科学和系统（cyberGIS）的并行计算策略来解决增强两步浮动集水区域（E2SFCA）方法的计算强度，从而实现快速测量。E2SFCA 有两个主要步骤。首先，它为每个医院位置计算床位与人口的比例。其次，它对医院位置重叠的居民点的这些比例进行求和。
将 COVID-19 患者的空间可达性指标与高危人群的空间可达性指标进行比较，可以确定哪些地理区域需要额外的医疗资源来改善可达性。结果还有助于划定可能面临 COVID-19 导致医疗资源短缺的区域。芝加哥大都市区，特别是南部的芝加哥，需要额外的资源。本研究还确定了居住在芝加哥空间可达性低的地区的弱势人群。
快速测量医疗资源的空间可达性可提高对医疗基础设施在 COVID-19 大流行期间挽救生命的能力的理解。研究结果与政策制定者和公共卫生从业者相关，可用于分配现有医疗资源或分发新资源，以实现对卫生服务的最大利用。
