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Jila Sadighi, Ali Hosseini, Kazem Mohammad, Saeed Mahdavi, Siamak Mirab Samieearnaq, Nooshafarin Safadel, et al . Geographical accessibility to medical laboratory services in Iran: modeling population access. Payesh 2015; 14 (5) :537-553
URL: http://payeshjournal.ir/article-1-216-en.html

Objective (s): Recent advances in health geography lead to more understanding of the role of the geographical distribution and location of health services. In order to reduce the social inequalities, there have been several attempts to measure geographical access to health services. The present study was carried out to assess modeling geographical access to medical laboratory services in Iran.
Methods: The detailed methodology was reported elsewhere. In brief, study units includeded medical laboratories which were active by the end of March 2013 and located within the city borders. A selected number of cities were included in the study. Data were analyzed using experts’ opinions and using Geographic Information System (GIS). In addition, spatial analysis performed using ArcGIS.
Results:This model included two main domains: ‘site selection’ and ‘the number of centers’. The number of centers was dependent upon the urban land use per capita and the site selection consisted of seven elements including population density, distance to service, safety, land use compatibility with neighbors, environmental protection, neighbor to non-constructed land and access to roads.
Conclusion: The proposed model can be fit for selecting sites for medical laboratories in all cities and as well as for locating other medical centers in Iran. However, one should be careful for using the model for site selection in cities with small area. The accuracy of selected sites should be confirmed with field visits and opinions of local experts, because some factors such as economic and legal issues influences the possibility of the usage of proposed lands.