Department of Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Computer Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Front Public Health. 2022 Mar 10;10:811858. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.811858. eCollection 2022.
Public health emergencies such as disease outbreaks and bioterrorism attacks require immediate response to ensure the safety and well-being of the affected community and prevent the further spread of infection. The standard method to increase the efficiency of mass dispensing during health emergencies is to create emergency points called points of dispensing (PODs). PODs are sites for distributing medical services such as vaccines or drugs to the affected population within a specific time constraint. These PODs need to be sited in optimal locations and have people (demand points) assigned to them simultaneously; this is known as the location-allocation problem. PODs may need to be selected to serve the entire population (full allocation) or different priority or needs groups (partial allocation). Several previous studies have focused on location problems in different application domains, including healthcare. However, some of these studies focused on healthcare facility location problems without specifying location-allocation problems or the exact domain. This study presents a survey of the PODs location-allocation problem during public health emergencies. This survey aims to review and analyse the existing models for PODs location-allocation during public health emergencies based on full and partial demand points allocation. Moreover, it compares existing models based on their key features, strengths, and limitations. The challenges and future research directions for PODs location-allocation models are also discussed. The results of this survey demonstrated a necessity to develop a variety of techniques to analyse, define and meet the demand of particular groups. It also proved essential that models be developed for different countries, including accounting for variations in population size and density. Moreover, the model constraints, such as those relating to time or prioritizing certain groups, need to be considered in the solution. Finally, additional comparative studies are required to clarify which methods or models are adequate based on predefined criteria.
公共卫生突发事件，如疾病爆发和生物恐怖袭击，需要立即做出响应，以确保受影响社区的安全和福祉，并防止感染进一步传播。在卫生突发事件中提高大规模分发效率的标准方法是创建紧急分发点，称为分发点（POD）。POD 是在特定时间限制内向受影响人群分发医疗服务（如疫苗或药物）的地点。这些 POD 需要位于最佳位置，并同时为其分配人员（需求点）；这被称为选址分配问题。POD 可能需要选择来为整个人口服务（全部分配）或不同的优先级或需求群体（部分分配）。之前的几项研究都集中在不同应用领域的选址问题上，包括医疗保健。然而，其中一些研究侧重于医疗设施选址问题，而没有指定选址分配问题或确切的领域。本研究对公共卫生突发事件期间的 POD 选址分配问题进行了调查。本调查旨在根据全部和部分需求点分配，回顾和分析公共卫生突发事件期间 POD 选址分配的现有模型。此外，还根据其主要特点、优势和局限性对现有模型进行了比较。还讨论了 POD 选址分配模型的挑战和未来研究方向。该调查的结果表明，需要开发各种技术来分析、定义和满足特定群体的需求。还证明了为不同国家开发模型的必要性，包括考虑人口规模和密度的差异。此外，在解决方案中需要考虑模型的约束条件，例如与时间相关的约束条件或优先考虑某些群体的约束条件。最后，需要进行额外的比较研究，以根据预定义的标准明确哪些方法或模型是合适的。
