Optimizing Healthcare Delivery

For low- to middle-income countries (LMIC) around the world, access to life-saving vaccines and blood is not a given. Indeed, 50 years after the World Health Organization’s Expanded Program on Immunization and 25 years after the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) were launched to help ensure children in every country could access vaccines, challenges remain. Inefficient and outdated systems of packaging, storing, and delivering vaccines or blood limit efforts to reach the people who need it most.

For more than 20 years, the University of Pittsburgh’s Jayant Rajgopal has taken a unique approach to addressing healthcare challenges in LMICs. He is applying industrial logistics principles to model and optimize the distribution chain of vaccines and blood. Rajgopal recently delivered the keynote address at the Biennial International Conference on Industrial Logistics (ICIL), held at Ritsumeikan University’s Tokyo Campus, highlighting the promise of a logistics approach to helping save lives.

“When people think about industrial logistics, they tend to think about traditional manufacturing, warehousing, and transportation,” said Rajgopal, Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Department of Industrial Engineering. “But it’s incredibly beneficial in complex healthcare delivery.”

In his keynote address, Rajgopal discussed how industrial logistics can improve vaccine distribution in LCIMs like Chad and Kenya, presenting his research detailed in articles such as “Redesign of Vaccine Distribution Networks” (DOI: 10.1111/itor.12758) and “Optimizing Vaccine Distribution in Low and Middle-Income Countries,” (DOI: 10.1016/j.omega.2020.102197).

“We’ve developed mixed-integer programming models, which consider different variables and constraints,” Rajgopal noted. “Our models separate the vaccine distribution networks from existing healthcare infrastructure, which can be outdated and complex. We’re making these networks more efficient and adaptable so they can reach more people.”

Rajgopal and his team have tested their models using data from LMICs across sub-Saharan Africa, validating their efficacy in reducing costs and increasing distribution.

Rajgopal presented a second case study, in which a transdisciplinary team developed a novel approach to optimizing how blood is collected, stored, and delivered to people in rural settings of LMICs. Since 2017, he has been part of a project called BLOODSAFE – Pathways of Innovation in Blood Transfusion Systems in Kenya.

The researchers used discrete event simulation (DES), a computer-based modeling approach that simulates a complex process, breaking it down to specific events occurring at a particular time.

“DES has traditionally been used in manufacturing, but increasingly healthcare leaders are seeing its value,” Rajgopal said.

In modeling and simulating the ‘vein-to-vein’ process in Kenya, from collection and storage of blood to transport and distribution, the team created a framework that scales and adapts to the unique conditions of a country.

“The ICIL conference focuses more on manufacturing and production,” Rajgopal said. “It was an honor to have this opportunity to deliver the keynote address and share how logistics research is transforming healthcare delivery—how it can do more than just improve assembly lines. It can save lives.”