Agent-based modelling of sustainable development of regional healthcare infrastructure

This study examines the problems of providing support to decision-making in the field of sustainable development of a regional healthcare infrastructure. To tackle these problems, there is a need to fund healthcare systems more efficiently, improve sanitation and hygiene, and provide access to medical services for a wide strata of the population. A network of healthcare organisations should be developed based on the structure and level of morbidity, mortality, gender and age composition of the population, climate and geography of territories, and transport accessibility of healthcare organisations. An important scientific challenge we face today is how the spatial allocation of healthcare infrastructure facilities can be enhanced. The paper presents the authors’ concept of building agent-based models that safeguard decision-making on the best spatial allocation of healthcare infrastructure facilities. It includes a formal description of the objective of selecting the best location for healthcare infrastructure facilities, as well as the final description of the models, using a protocol for standardising the description of agentbased models. Relying on this concept, the paper presents a prototype of an agent-based model, built for a real-world system. The concept can potentially be used to solve a wider range of problems related to spatial allocation of social infrastructure facilities, which could ensure sustainable development of the regional social infrastructure.