History and mission

About MCDI:

Our History and Mission

Our Staff

Our Unique

Capabilities :

Health Care Financing

GIS

Site Information:

Learn more about • MEDSOLVE •

Role of GIS in Health Care Policy and Programs

MCDI utilizes ESRI software to develop databases that can be presented on maps, tables, charts, and graphs. MCDI uses these presentation tools to provide decision makers and planners with a powerful analytic tool for better management and planning.

Projects:

MCDI personnel have used GIS software and related tools on projects funded by the World Bank, African Development Bank, Irish Aid and USAID. Example of GIS experience is presented in the projects listed below:

     Tunisia – Economic Study of Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

     South Africa - TBA and AIDS Home-Base Care Worker Coverage

     Lesotho – Health Center Rationalization Study

     Bolivia – Central Potosi Child Survival Project

     South Africa - Ndwedwe District Child Survival Project

Tunisia – Economic Study of Emergency Medical Services (EMS)

Using GIS technology MCDI staff created an ArcView database with population density and coverage zones to discern areas requiring emergency medical service expansion and areas that were candidates for service rationalization.

South Africa - TBA and AIDS Home-Base Care Worker Coverage

GIS technology has been used in the NDCSP to identify the locations of Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) and Home-Based Care Volunteers (HBCVs) working in the district. These partners are critical to supporting and implementing the community-based initiatives of the NDCSP, particularly the implementation of Household and Community Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (HH/C-IMCI). They are also critical to ensuring the integration and linkage of HH/C-IMCI with health facility personnel implementing facility-based IMCI.

During the current cost-extension Phase (Phase II) of the NDCSP, updated maps of TBAs and HBCVs will be produced, and new maps will be developed to identify the location of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in the district. CHWs are additional vital community-based providers of care who have been recently reintegrated into the system of providers employed by the Department of Health.

Lesotho – Health Center Rationalization Study

MCDI provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Lesotho to evaluate the current distribution of health centers in the country and to recommend a rationalization of service distribution as required. As part of this work MCDI used raster images (1:250,000 and 1:50,000) and GPS software to locate all the country’s health facilities and the villages that reported using these health facilities. The villages and health facilities were initially plotted on a map and 8-kilometer circles indicative of catchment areas were drawn to identify clusters of health center with significant apparent coverage overlap (see figure below).

Twenty overlapping coverage clusters were identified (see example of one of these below) as candidates for further rationalization analysis. Health centers within these clusters were then analyzed within a discrete choice location algorithm employing a proprietary software developed by MCDI, MedLocate©, to determine the appropriateness of the current location decision. The Ministry of Health determined that the location decision should be based on the following objective functions in order of priority: (1) coverage maximization, (2) cost minimization, (3) minimization of the sum of the demand-weighted distance traveled to obtain care, and (4) maximizing quality (as determined by a composite quality index that measured staff availability relative to normative standards, equipment availability, adequacy of infrastructure (including staff housing), and service availability and production.

15 Km

A “greedy-drop” heuristic algorithm was then employed to evaluate which, if any, of the existing health center might be candidates for decommissioning because they had little or no impact on coverage and, if decommissioned, would reduce costs, and improve quality without substantively increasing the average demand-weighted distance traveled by beneficiaries.

As part of this analysis MCDI conducted a comparative analysis of the quality of the country’s health centers and produced a set of maps in ArcView (see below) that clearly depicted qualitative trends. These maps enabled MCDI to identify region-specific qualitative trends that needed to be addressed within the health sector reform investment program.

This section of the 1:250,000 map of Lesotho shows the location of some health centers and the villages that they serve.

Bolivia – Central Potosi Child Survival Project

Using GPS technology and ArcView, MCDI staff created a map of the project districts in Bolivia showing the location of the different type of HF.