The American Medical Association has launched an enhanced version of its Health Workforce Mapper, a tool designed to enable physicians and other healthcare providers to improve patient access to care.
In addition to highlighting geographic locations of the healthcare workforce in each state, the mapping tool now also provides population health data by geographic location.
Dubbed the “Population Health Explorer,” this enhancement features data on a variety of population health factors, including healthcare access and quality, health behaviors such as smoking and alcohol use, demographics, and social environment factors.
[Also: 5 steps to a successful population health framework]
“Improving patient access to quality care is a core mission of the AMA, and this mapping tool will show physicians and healthcare professionals precisely where their skills can most benefit populations in need,” said AMA president Andrew Gurman, MD. “Knowing where healthcare services are needed most can help providers make the best decisions on where to locate or expand their practices to reach patients in greatest need of access to care.”
The AMA’s Health Workforce Mapper was designed to give physicians and other healthcare providers information — using AMA data and other data sources — to identify health professional shortage areas, hospital locations, and related workforce trends.
Further, the AMA said the tool can help new physicians close the gap in patient access to care by giving residents and medical students access to key information that allows them to see, from state to state, where there are shortages in certain medical specialties.
The enhanced tool was developed in collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians Robert Graham Center and geospatial analysis firm HealthLandscape. It is available to the public free of charge via the AMA website.
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com
