Nicholson Calum, Hanly Mark, Celermajer David S
Central Clinical School, University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine and Health, Darlington, New South Wales, Australia.
Clinical Research Group, Heart Research Institute, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.
PLOS Digit Health. 2023 May 8;2(5):e0000253. doi: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000253. eCollection 2023 May.
Large health datasets can provide evidence for the equitable allocation of healthcare resources and access to care. Geographic information systems (GIS) can help to present this data in a useful way, aiding in health service delivery. An interactive GIS was developed for the adult congenital heart disease service (ACHD) in New South Wales, Australia to demonstrate its feasibility for health service planning. Datasets describing geographic boundaries, area-level demographics, hospital driving times, and the current ACHD patient population were collected, linked, and displayed in an interactive clinic planning tool. The current ACHD service locations were mapped, and tools to compare current and potential locations were provided. Three locations for new clinics in rural areas were selected to demonstrate the application. Introducing new clinics changed the number of rural patients within a 1-hour drive of their nearest clinic from 44·38% to 55.07% (79 patients) and reduced the average driving time from rural areas to the nearest clinic from 2·4 hours to 1·8 hours. The longest driving time was changed from 10·9 hours to 8·9 hours. A de-identified public version of the GIS clinic planning tool is deployed at https://cbdrh.shinyapps.io/ACHD_Dashboard/. This application demonstrates how a freely available and interactive GIS can be used to aid in health service planning. In the context of ACHD, GIS research has shown that adherence to best practice care is impacted by patients' accessibility to specialist services. This project builds on this research by providing opensource tools to build more accessible healthcare services.
大型健康数据集可为医疗资源的公平分配和医疗服务可及性提供证据。地理信息系统（GIS）有助于以有用的方式呈现这些数据，助力医疗服务的提供。澳大利亚新南威尔士州为成人先天性心脏病服务（ACHD）开发了一个交互式GIS，以证明其在医疗服务规划中的可行性。收集了描述地理边界、区域层面人口统计数据、医院驾车时长以及当前ACHD患者群体的数据集，进行关联并展示在一个交互式诊所规划工具中。绘制了当前ACHD服务地点的地图，并提供了比较当前和潜在地点的工具。选择了农村地区的三个新诊所地点进行应用展示。引入新诊所后，农村患者在距最近诊所1小时车程内的比例从44.38%变为55.07%（增加了79名患者），农村地区到最近诊所的平均驾车时间从2.4小时减少到1.8小时。最长驾车时间从10.9小时变为8.9小时。一个经过去识别处理的GIS诊所规划工具公共版本部署在https://cbdrh.shinyapps.io/ACHD_Dashboard/ 。该应用展示了如何使用免费的交互式GIS来辅助医疗服务规划。在ACHD背景下，GIS研究表明，患者获得专科服务的难易程度会影响对最佳实践护理的遵循情况。该项目在此研究基础上，通过提供开源工具来构建更易获得的医疗服务。
