Project Summary

The goal of this study is to propose evidence-based policies that will foster the optimal expansion of existing mobile health resources and promote inter-institutional collaboration between mobile clinic programs in order to maximize benefit for at-risk populations and reduce healthcare costs. Particular, we will combine data from different sources such as GIS epidemiological data and historical clinic data, together with optimization modeling, to identify key population targets and least-cost routes that can be used by independent mobile clinics to increase significantly total coverage. The specific aims of this proposal include: 1) Develop new forecasting models to predict the demand for types of mobile health clinic service in various communities and validate the findings from new models;
2) To complete an economic and technical feasibility analysis of a new model for optimizing mobile health clinic resource deployment, and determine whether new health service unit should be set-up for some communities; 3) based on the model studied, to propose reliable and cost-effective policies to expand mobile health clinic resources and improve their efficiency. We expect that policies identified in our research will encourage comprehensive, multi-provider, collaborative programs of mobile health units in Texas. In turn, these programs can lead to a high-impact and cost-effective approach for reducing healthcare disparities.

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Project Participants:

Participants from UH:
Principal Investigator: Jiming Peng.

Students: Bilal Majeed (Ph.D).

Other institute partners: UTSPH, TCH, UTMB and MDACC.

Sponsor: NSF EAGER. 2016–2018.