Biomedical subjects

Ross Mullner

Publications and source records attributed to Ross Mullner.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Comparing GIS-based methods of measuring spatial accessibility to health services.

The inequitable geographic distribution of health care resources has long been recognized as a problem in the United States. Traditional measures, such as a simple ratio of supply to demand in an area or distance to the closest provider, are easy measures for spatial accessibility. However the former one does not consider interactions between patients and providers across administrative borders and the latter does not account for the demand side, that is, the competition for the supply. With advancements in GIS, however, better measures of geographic accessibility, variants of a gravity model, have been applied. Among them are (1) a two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method and (2) a kernel density (KD) method. This microscopic study compared these two GIS-based measures of accessibility in our case study of dialysis service centers in Chicago. Our comparison study found a significant mismatch of the accessibility ratios between the two methods. Overall, the 2SFCA method produced better accessibility ratios. There is room for further improvement of the 2SFCA method-varying the radius of service area according to the type of provider or the type of neighborhood and determining the appropriate weight equation form-still warrant further study.

Geographic Information Systems↗

PubMed2002

Access to microdata on the Internet: Web-based analysis and data subset extraction tools.

The Internet is increasingly being recognized as an invaluable component of education. At the college and university level, online databases and statistical tools for Web-based analysis and data subset extraction have become important instructional resources. These Internet resources enable students to formulate specific research hypotheses, identify relevant variables, and analyze large existing databases. This article describes three of these resources: the Federal Electronic Research and Review Extraction Tool (FERRET) of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) unit at the University of California, Berkley, and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), which is housed at the University of Michigan.

California↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The performance of Medicare, Medicaid, and individual commercial products.

Medicare, Medicaid, and individual nongovernmental insurance products are marketed by commercial health insurance companies. We propose that the product offerings be viewed as a group rather than as separate products competing for internal company resources. A study population consisting of 35 Aetna plans in 24 states, 124 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans (BCBS) in 45 states and the District of Columbia, 43 Cigna plans in 28 states, and 23 UnitedHealth plans in 22 states was examined on 29 variables, including financial, marketing, and medical management data. The findings revealed that Medicaid and individual nongovernmental products were terminated more often than other products across all ownership types. When BCBS plans were analyzed across for-profit, nonprofit, and mutual ownership types, the companies had distinct preferences for product offerings. The study provided evidence that health plans will limit their exposure to Medicare, Medicaid, and individual nongovernmental products in preference to comprehensive/group products.

Commerce↗