SCC-PG: Building a smart and connected rural community for improved healthcare access through the deployment of integrated mobility solutions

已经建立了各种方案，以扩大和促进医疗保健服务，以低收入的农村美国人面临的财政障碍。这些计划提供了广泛的医疗保健服务，几乎没有成本。然而，尽管这些服务的可用性，但在及时将患者带到医疗保健提供者处进行医疗保健方面存在挑战。农村社区的许多人无法获得推荐的服务，主要是由于交通方面的困难。这些挑战反过来又会严重影响他们的就医行为，并阻碍他们获得及时的医疗服务。患者不出现不仅延误诊断，而且由于医疗设施和人力资源利用不足，导致医疗保健提供者的收入损失。为了解决这些问题，由按需服务推动的持续移动转型可能会提供负担得起的交通解决方案，以改善医疗服务的可及性，并重塑服务不足社区的人们的就医行为。该项目的重点是西亚拉巴马，特别是健康不利的黑带地区，调查预防性就医行为。主要目标是探索按需移动服务对服务不足的个人这些行为的影响。该项目将创建一个由跨学科研究人员、医疗服务提供商、交通服务提供商和社区利益相关者组成的智能互联农村社区（SCRC），通过部署按需移动服务，促进农村社区的预防性医疗保健。该项目将进行综合研究，目标涵盖技术和社会科学两个方面：1）技术层面-通过与当地卫生服务提供者和交通服务提供者合作，该项目将开发一个智能健康和移动系统（SHMS），以利用和协调研究区域内现有的交通资源，为患者和医生提供按需移动服务。需要在医疗设施和病人家中之间旅行的护士; 2）社会科学维度-通过社区参与活动（例如，会议、焦点小组和调查），该项目将探讨按需流动服务对未投保或投保不足的患者预防性就医行为的影响。本项目将通过探索流动服务对弱势农村社区寻求护理行为的影响来显着推进知识。这些知识将帮助医疗保健提供者和利益相关者做出明智的决策，利用新兴的移动服务提供具有成本效益的医疗保健服务，并提高贫困农村社区的生活质量。该项目预计将为实施按需移动解决方案奠定基础，以加强这些地区的医疗保健。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Various programs have been established to extend and promote healthcare services to low-income rural Americans facing financial barriers. These programs offer a wide range of healthcare services at little to no cost. However, despite the availability of these services, challenges arise in bringing patients to healthcare providers in a timely manner for healthcare. Many individuals in rural communities are unable to receive recommended services, primarily due to transportation challenges. These challenges, in turn, significantly impact their care-seeking behaviors and hinder their access to timely healthcare. Patient no-shows not only delay diagnoses but also result in lost revenue for healthcare providers due to under-utilization of medical facilities and staff resources. To address these issues, the ongoing mobility transformation fueled by on-demand services may offer affordable transportation solutions to improve healthcare access and reshape care-seeking behaviors among people in under-served communities. This project focuses on West Alabama, specifically the health-disadvantaged Black Belt region, to investigate preventive care-seeking behaviors. The primary objective is to explore the impacts of on-demand mobility services on these behaviors among under-served individuals. This project will create a Smart and Connected Rural Community (SCRC) comprised of interdisciplinary researchers, healthcare providers, transportation providers, and community stakeholders to promote preventive healthcare in rural communities through deploying on-demand mobility services. This project will conduct integrative research with objectives covering both technological and social science dimensions: 1) Technological Dimension – By partnering with local health providers and transportation providers, this project will develop a Smart Health and Mobility System (SHMS) to leverage and coordinate existing transportation resources within the study area to offer on-demand mobility services to patients and doctors/nurses in need of traveling between medical facilities and patient homes; 2) Social Science Dimension – Through community engagement activities (e.g., meetings, focus groups, and surveys), this project will explore the impacts of on-demand mobility services on preventive care-seeking behaviors among uninsured or under-insured patients. This project will significantly advance the knowledge by exploring the impacts of mobility services on care-seeking behaviors in disadvantaged rural communities. The knowledge will aid healthcare providers and stakeholders make informed decisions to leverage emerging mobility services to deliver cost-effective healthcare services and improve quality of life in disadvantaged rural communities. The project is expected to set the groundwork for implementing on-demand mobility solutions to enhance healthcare in these areas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.