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Distributing Scarce Drugs for the Medpin Program

Author

Listed:
  • Jayashankar M. Swaminathan

    (Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3490)

  • Marice Ashe

    (Medpin Program, Public Health Institute, 555 12th Street, 10th Floor, Oakland, California 94607)

  • Kathryn Duke

    (Medpin Program, Public Health Institute, 555 12th Street, 10th Floor, Oakland, California 94607)

  • Liz Maslin

    (Medpin Program, Public Health Institute, 555 12th Street, 10th Floor, Oakland, California 94607)

  • Leon Wilde

    (Medpin Program, Public Health Institute, 555 12th Street, 10th Floor, Oakland, California 94607)

Abstract

In the 1999 settlement of a lawsuit by the state of California, 19 pharmaceutical firms were required to provide $150 million worth of drugs free of charge to 200 California clinics and hospitals over three years. The Public Health Institute (www.phi.org), an independent, nonprofit organization, was responsible for distributing these drugs in a fair and equitable manner. In 2001, six more firms and $20 million dollars were added to the project. The decision-support system for the drug distribution project (DDP) used management science and operations research concepts to distribute drugs in a timely and fair manner, taking into account various clinic, pharmaceutical, and allocation constraints. Many uninsured patients who would otherwise have had difficult or no access to medication have received their prescribed drugs and sustained their health. Although an accurate count of the patients affected is not available yet, we estimate that 2.6 million, 30-day drug prescriptions were filled as part of DDP between April 2000 and February 2003. Further, many pharmaceutical firms are exploring using the DDP's decision-support system to improve operation of their charitable drug programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Jayashankar M. Swaminathan & Marice Ashe & Kathryn Duke & Liz Maslin & Leon Wilde, 2004. "Distributing Scarce Drugs for the Medpin Program," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 34(5), pages 353-358, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:34:y:2004:i:5:p:353-358
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.1040.0095
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    Cited by:

    1. Karsu, Özlem & Morton, Alec, 2015. "Inequity averse optimization in operational research," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(2), pages 343-359.
    2. Muge Capan & Anahita Khojandi & Brian T. Denton & Kimberly D. Williams & Turgay Ayer & Jagpreet Chhatwal & Murat Kurt & Jennifer Mason Lobo & Mark S. Roberts & Greg Zaric & Shengfan Zhang & J. Sanford, 2017. "From Data to Improved Decisions: Operations Research in Healthcare Delivery," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 37(8), pages 849-859, November.

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