The Trauma Resource Allocation Model for Ambulances and Hospitals (TRAMAH) determines access to current trauma centers and helps to find the best site for new ones, based on patient access and available resources.

Client: American Trauma Society, Cartographic Modeling Lab, University of Pennsylvania

Challenge:  The difference between life and death for severely injured people depends upon the amount of time it takes to get them to a trauma center hospital.  The siting of trauma center hospitals, however, is trickier than just making sure an area is covered.  Helicopter and ambulance speed and range, the number of trauma centers in a region and many other factors need to be considered.  To be viable, the hospital must be in a location with a large enough population to ensure use of the facility.

Solution: TRAMAH is a mathematical model that uses population and access to existing trauma centers based on geographic relationships to ambulances and helicopters to simulate the effects of newly sited trauma centers.  Azavea developed an interactive website where visitors can identify the locations of current hospitals and trauma centers and their accessibility via ambulance or helicopter.

Outcomes:  The TRAMAH model is used by state trauma systems regulatory authorities to assist in siting new trauma centers.  It incorporates key population and geographic data to improve accessibility to urgently needed care.  It was deployed in 2006 with the most current data, but a second phase is now planned that will enable state regulators to test different trauma center location scenarios and calculate the effects on-the-fly.

Website: http://tramah.cml.upenn.edu/CML.TraumaCenters.Web/