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Stress-testing the resilience of the Austrian healthcare system using agent-based simulation.

ABSTRACT: Patients do not access physicians at random but rather via naturally emerging networks of patient flows between them. As mass quarantines, absences due to sickness, or other shocks thin out these networks, the system might be pushed to a tipping point where it loses its ability to deliver care. Here, we propose a data-driven framework to quantify regional resilience to such shocks via an agent-based model. For each region and medical specialty we construct patient-sharing networks and stress-test these by removing physicians. This allows us to measure regional resilience indicators describing how many physicians can be removed before patients will not be treated anymore. Our model could therefore enable health authorities to rapidly identify bottlenecks in access to care. Here, we show that regions and medical specialties differ substantially in their resilience and that these systemic differences can be related to indicators for individual physicians by quantifying their risk and benefit to the system.

SUBMITTER: Kaleta M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9308034 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Stress-testing the resilience of the Austrian healthcare system using agent-based simulation.

Kaleta Michaela M Lasser Jana J Dervic Elma E Yang Liuhuaying L Sorger Johannes J Lo Sardo D Ruggiero DR Thurner Stefan S Kautzky-Willer Alexandra A Klimek Peter P

Nature communications 20220723 1

Patients do not access physicians at random but rather via naturally emerging networks of patient flows between them. As mass quarantines, absences due to sickness, or other shocks thin out these networks, the system might be pushed to a tipping point where it loses its ability to deliver care. Here, we propose a data-driven framework to quantify regional resilience to such shocks via an agent-based model. For each region and medical specialty we construct patient-sharing networks and stress-tes ...[more]

PMID: 35871248

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Dataset Information

Stress-testing the resilience of the Austrian healthcare system using agent-based simulation.

Publications

Stress-testing the resilience of the Austrian healthcare system using agent-based simulation.

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