ArticleInjury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention2017
Exploring optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway using advanced mathematical modelling.
Article in Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Geographical alignment of prehospital critical care services with population need for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Selection of helicopter bases and transport modes to minimize pre-hospital times in Iceland.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- The impact of concurrency conflicts on optimal location of air ambulance bases in Norway.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Investigating the barriers to air medical services in accidents and disasters in Iran and suggesting solutions: a qualitative study.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Locating helicopter ambulance bases in Iceland: efficient and fair solutions.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2023Article
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- Introducing fairness in Norwegian air ambulance base location planning.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2021Article
- Factors affecting development of air ambulance base: A systematic review and thematic analysis.Journal of education and health promotion · 2021Review
- Improving ambulance coverage in a mixed urban-rural region in Norway using mathematical modeling.PloS one · 2019Article
- Comparing population and incident data for optimal air ambulance base locations in Norway.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2018Article
- Locating helicopter emergency medical service bases to optimise population coverage versus average response time.BMC emergency medicine · 2017Article
- Geospatial optimization of Air-Mobile Stroke Unit deployment in Norway: expanding the frontiers of neurocritical care.Frontiers in neurologyArticle
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHelicopter emergency medical services are an important part of many healthcare systems. Norway has a nationwide physician staffed air ambulance service with 12 bases servicing a country with large geographical variations in population density. The aim of the study was to estimate optimal air ambulance base locations.
methodsWe used high resolution population data for Norway from 2015, dividing Norway into >300 000 1 km×1 km cells. Inhabited cells had a median (5-95 percentile) of 13 (1-391) inhabitants. Optimal helicopter base locations were estimated using the maximal covering location problem facility location optimisation model, exploring the number of bases needed to cover various fractions of the population for time thresholds 30 and 45 min, both in green field scenarios and conditioning on the current base structure. We reanalysed on municipality level data to explore the potential information loss using coarser population data.
resultsFor a 45 min threshold, 90% of the population could be covered using four bases, and 100% using nine bases. Given the existing bases, the calculations imply the need for two more bases to achieve full coverage. Decreasing the threshold to 30 min approximately doubles the number of bases needed. Results using municipality level data were remarkably similar to those using fine grid information.
conclusionsThe whole population could be reached in 45 min or less using nine optimally placed bases. The current base structure could be improved by moving or adding one or two select bases. Municipality level data appears sufficient for proper analysis.
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