Improving public healthcare decision-making with geographic information systems

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology supports public healthcare by enabling governments and organizations to analyze and visualize spatial data, leading to better public health planning and decision-making. By collecting, storing, and analyzing location-based data, GIS provides strategic insights and decision-making tools to identify service gaps, plan better healthcare distribution, and ensure equitable access to health services. Project Last Mile uses GIS technology leveraged from private sector expertise to support ministries of health to increase the availability of life-saving medicines and health commodities, thereby improving patient health outcomes.

Enhancing healthcare access in South Africa through GIS-powered solutions

Since 2016, Project Last Mile has partnered with South Africa’s National Department of Health to support the Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution Program (CCMDD). The program aims to improve access to chronic medication by allowing patients to pick up medicines, including antiretroviral treatment, at convenient locations instead of their usual public health clinics.

South Africa is home to 7.7 million people living with HIV, including 5.5 million on daily antiretroviral therapy. Non-communicable diseases are also rising, placing a strain on the limited resources and healthcare facilities. Previously, patients collected routine medication refills from primary care clinics, often traveling long distances and missing a day of work or school to pick up these essential medicines.

GIS has played a significant role in the evolution of the CCMDD program by providing a mechanism for collecting, consolidating, analyzing, and visualizing program data and supporting decision-making. This includes integrating geographic location data from multiple sources: public health facilities, medication pick-up points, and patient numbers provided by the National Department of Health; retail outlets, private pharmacies, and medical practices from the private sector; and local population and administrative boundary data.

GIS has made it possible to merge datasets from these different sources into a single platform, providing location-based insights to support decision-making and track program performance. GIS analysis shows the distance of pick-up points in relation to health facilities and gaps in patient coverage. The National Department of Health uses this information to identify, plan, and prioritize its efforts to expand service offerings to serve patients better.

GIS can ensure efficient use of limited resources by establishing areas with high patient numbers and limited pick-up point possibilities. For example, the National Department of Health uses GIS to determine where to situate innovative pick-up point solutions, such as containers or smart lockers.

GIS has enabled Project Last Mile to support an increase in patients collecting medications at non-clinic pick-up points and expand the non-clinic pick-up point network across South Africa.

The number of patients on the CCMDD program has more than doubled from 1.5 million in 2019 to 3.2 million in 2024. Of the 3.2 million, 2 million patients (63%) collect their medication from pre-approved private sector pick-up points. The number of non-clinic pick-up points supporting CCMDD has increased from 1,278 in 2019 to 2,866 in 2024 and now includes retail stores, pharmacies, medical practices, prefabricated units, and NGO premises.

Over the past few years, GIS has also been crucial for CCMDD’s disaster management in response to COVID-19, riots, and flooding. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in various levels of lockdowns and was declared a state of national disaster. In addition, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province experienced violent riots. These scenarios affected health provision; for instance, healthcare workers could not get to their service points, and patients could not collect their medication.

Project Last Mile has mapped all the CCMDD pick-up points and healthcare facilities, allowing it to track when pick-up points are affected by disasters, like riots or COVID-19, and then use that information to guide the distribution of medicines to alternate locations. For example, Project Last Mile GIS tools tracked over 450 pick-up points and 400,000 patients during the riots in KwaZulu-Natal in 2021. This GIS tracking meant it was possible to redirect patients and medicines to unaffected pick-up points.

Ongoing use of GIS technology for enhanced public healthcare planning and delivery

GIS continues to play an important role in the success of the CCMDD program and helps guide strategies for future expansion.

Project Last Mile has become the lead GIS partner to the National Department of Health’s CCMDD program. This partnership is enabling the department to analyze data better and make informed decisions, leading to the rapid and effective expansion of the CCMDD program.

Additionally, Project Last Mile uses GIS to optimize delivery routes for medical supplies and improve condom distribution strategies for HIV prevention, among other initiatives.

This initiative is funded and supported by USAID. The content and information provided on this website are the responsibility of Project Last Mile and are not official United States government information and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of USAID or the United States Government.