Regional clustering of medical imaging technologies

The purpose of this study was to analyze clusters from 12 regions in Turkey in terms of medical imaging technologies' capacity and use. 12 statistical region units were determined by the Ministry of Development and Turkish Statistical Institute clustered in terms of selected medical imaging indicators regarding capacity and use by using the hierarchical clustering method. This study was based on the Ward's Method, one of the hierarchical clustering methods, and the distance matrix was created by using Euclidean distance measure analysis. When the distance matrix, which was created by using the squared Euclidean distance measure, was analyzed, it was found that the two regions most distant from each other were Southeast Anatolia and Western Anatolia (Euclidean distance = 13.69) two regions which have the least distance from each other were Mediterranean and Aegean regions (Euclidean distance = 0.99) for public, university and private hospitals. When we analyze the dendrogram, which was created by using hierarchical clustering, it was seen that the 12 statistical region units were gathered in four different clusters. This article revealed that there were inequities in medical imaging technologies according to regions in Turkey and hospital ownerships.