Modeling Access Differences to Reduce Disparity in Resource Allocation

Motivated by COVID-19 vaccine allocation, where vulnerable subpopulations are simultaneously more impacted in terms of health and more disadvantaged in terms of access to the vaccine, we formalize and study the problem of resource allocation when there are inherent access differences that correlate with advantage and disadvantage. We identify reducing resource disparity as a key goal in this context and show its role as a proxy to more nuanced downstream impacts. We develop a concrete access model that helps quantify how a given allocation translates to resource flow for the advantaged vs. the disadvantaged, based on the access gap between them. We then provide a methodology for access-aware allocation. Intuitively, the resulting allocation leverages more vaccines in locations with higher vulnerable populations to mitigate the access gap and reduce overall disparity. Surprisingly, knowledge of the access gap is often not needed to perform access-aware allocation. To support this formalism, we provide empirical evidence for our access model and show that access-aware allocation can significantly reduce resource disparity and thus improve downstream outcomes. We demonstrate this at various scales, including at county, state, national, and global levels. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Creating an Inter-Hospital Resilient Network for Pandemic Response Based on Blockchain and Dynamic Digital Twins

Developing and using the rich data implied by dynamic digital twins and blockchain is relevant to manage both patients and medical resources (e.g., doctors/nurses, ventilators etc.) at the COVID-19 and post COVID period. This paper aims at exploring the blockchain solutions for preparing healthcare systems ready for both efficient operation daily and in pandemic through (1) information integration of patient and medical resource flow from healthcare and medical records;(2) optimizing the deployment of such resources based on hospitals, regions and local pandemic levels switching from normal to the outbreak. The main idea is to develop the concepts of the novel framework for creating an inter-hospital resilient network for pandemic response based on blockchain and dynamic digital twin, which will set up innovative ways to best care for patients, protect NHS staff, and support government scientific decisions to beat COVID-19 now and manage the crisis in the future. © 2021 IEEE.