Medical Deserts Diagnostic Tool

The AHEAD consortium aims to support national and local level decision makers in their decisions for health workforce reforms, by providing data and information about the level and nature of ‘medical desertification’ in their area. 

One of the outputs of the AHEAD project is an interactive mapping tool that visualises, per country, indicators related to different aspects of desertification: our Medical Deserts Diagnostic Tool (MDDT). 

We developed the MDDT on the basis of our research findings. We conducted this research in the countries where all AHEAD consortium partners are based: Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Romania and Serbia  (shown in blue in the map below), following our contextualised research methodology.  

Our research findings led to the development of the following: 

1. Medical desertification definition 
2. Medical desertification index calculation methodology 
3. Interactive maps for case study identification/observation of medical desertification process  

To learn more about medical desertification in our countries, click on the countries in blue. This will take you to a page with more detailed information.  

Do you have any questions, suggestions or reflections? Please reach out to us via the contact us form. 

Are you interested in our work? Then please sign up to be part of our Medical Deserts Network, and stay up to date with regular email updates.