Modeling geographical accessibility to medical laboratory services in Iran: methodology and its challenges

Objectives: Recent advances in health geography helped to understand more on the role of the geographical distribution and settings of diagnostic and therapeutic centers in the communities. The present study aimed to investigate on modeling geographical access to medical laboratory services in Iran. Methods: This study conducted in 2014. Study units included medical laboratories, which were active by the end of March 2013 and located within the selected city borders. These laboratories were located in a clinic or in a hospital or were an independent laboratory. The cities were selected by sampling included Takab, Shushtar, Shiraz, Qom and Hamadan. Data analyses performed using expert opinions and using Geographic Information System (GIS). Spatial analysis performed using ArcGIS. The stages of studies were “identifying the urban capacity for medical laboratories”, “determining the land-use compatibility of medical laboratories with other urban land uses and creating mapped information layers in GIS for each of the land-uses”, “determining main criteria for site selection of new medical laboratories and weighting mapped information layers in GIS for each of the criteria”, “determining the optimal site for the new medical laboratories with overlapping mapped information layers of the main criteria in GIS”, “determining the number of new laboratories with considering the site selection of laboratories” and “design a geographical accessibility model to medical laboratory services”. Main challenges for conducting such studies require infrastructures including layer of urban blocks (field of population) and urban land use fields for each city. In addition, many criteria are involved in choosing the optimal location for the establishment of medical laboratories, so it is recommended to use Geographic Information System to facilitate analysis. Conclusion: Since the results of such studies are useful for policy making and planning in the health system and urban planning, recognizing methodolical challenges can facilitate similar studies in the future.