The objective of this research project is to create mathematical and simulation models of mass dispensing and vaccination clinics (also known as points of dispensing or PODs) and to develop decision support tools to help emergency preparedness planners plan clinics that have enough capacity to serve residents quickly while avoiding unnecessary congestion. A poor clinic design will have insufficient capacity and long lines of patients waiting for vaccinations. More patients require more space as they wait to receive treatment. If too many patients are in the clinic, they cause congestion, crowding, and confusion.
See also this poster describing the scope of the project.
Or view this video of Dr. Herrmann giving a presentation about this project.
Acknowlegement and Disclaimer: This material was produced under the direction of the Montgomery County, Maryland Advanced Practice Center at Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Health and Human Resources and was supported by Award Number 1H75TP000309-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO). Its contents are solely the responsibility of Montgomery County, Maryland Advanced Practice Center and do not necessarily represent the views of CDC or NACCHO.
The Consolidated Clinic Planning Model software organizes, aggregates, and analyzes the results of multiple distinct Clinic Planning Models.
eMedCheck for iOS is now available for iOS devices. Please go to the eMedCheck page for a download link and documentation.
Visit our Software page for links to pages where you can download the software that we have created, including the Clinic Planning Model Generator, the Vaccine Allocation Model, and eMedCheck.
eMedCheck 2010 is now available for BlackBerry devices. Please visit the BlackBerry download page for instructions. (A version for iPods, iPads, and iPhones will be released via the App Store - please stay tuned; in the meantime, view a preview.)
The Alternative Care Site Planning Model is intended to help public health officials evaluate the resources required to staff and equip alternative care sites in multiple scenarios.
The Montgomery County APC Shorts Series posted its first video:
The Training Modules page is the home for our series of training modules on the topic of using computer planning models for public health preparedness. All of the materials are provided free of charge for use by public health emergency preparedness planners.
We have started a blog called Public Health Preparedness Modeling to share information about this project (and other public health preparedness modeling efforts). We hope also to get comments and feedback from the public health community. Please take a look and let us know what we can do to make it more valuable to you!
We are constructing a list of computer models that have been developed for public health preparedness activities and are available on-line for use by public health professionals. This list will provide links to web sites for accessing the models. We would like to make this list as comprehensive as possible. To do so, we invite you to nominate models that you have used (or considered) and that you believe other local public health agencies would find useful. To do so, contact Jeffrey W. Herrmann at jwh2@umd.edu.
Our Publications page has links to papers that we have written about this project and the mathematical models we have developed.
The Publicity page provides links to articles that have appeared discussing this research.
Principal Investigator
The following students have contributed to the success of this project:
Special thanks to Caleb Strockbine, from the University of Maryland Office of Information Technology, for his help with eMedCheck for iOS.
Last updated by Jeffrey W. Herrmann, September 17, 2012.
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