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Main Authors: Trabelsi, Yohai, Xiong, Guojun, Getnet, Fentabil, Verguet, Stéphane, Tambe, Milind
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11479
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author Trabelsi, Yohai
Xiong, Guojun
Getnet, Fentabil
Verguet, Stéphane
Tambe, Milind
author_facet Trabelsi, Yohai
Xiong, Guojun
Getnet, Fentabil
Verguet, Stéphane
Tambe, Milind
contents Ethiopia's Ministry of Health is upgrading health posts to improve access to essential services, particularly in rural areas. Limited resources, however, require careful prioritization of which facilities to upgrade to maximize population coverage while accounting for diverse expert and stakeholder preferences. In collaboration with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and Ministry of Health, we propose a hybrid framework that systematically integrates expert knowledge with optimization techniques. Classical optimization methods provide theoretical guarantees but require explicit, quantitative objectives, whereas stakeholder criteria are often articulated in natural language and difficult to formalize. To bridge these domains, we develop the Large language model and Extended Greedy (LEG) framework. Our framework combines a provable approximation algorithm for population coverage optimization with LLM-driven iterative refinement that incorporates human-AI alignment to ensure solutions reflect expert qualitative guidance while preserving coverage guarantees. Experiments on real-world data from three Ethiopian regions demonstrate the framework's effectiveness and its potential to inform equitable, data-driven health system planning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_11479
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Health Facility Location in Ethiopia: Leveraging LLMs to Integrate Expert Knowledge into Algorithmic Planning
Trabelsi, Yohai
Xiong, Guojun
Getnet, Fentabil
Verguet, Stéphane
Tambe, Milind
Artificial Intelligence
Ethiopia's Ministry of Health is upgrading health posts to improve access to essential services, particularly in rural areas. Limited resources, however, require careful prioritization of which facilities to upgrade to maximize population coverage while accounting for diverse expert and stakeholder preferences. In collaboration with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and Ministry of Health, we propose a hybrid framework that systematically integrates expert knowledge with optimization techniques. Classical optimization methods provide theoretical guarantees but require explicit, quantitative objectives, whereas stakeholder criteria are often articulated in natural language and difficult to formalize. To bridge these domains, we develop the Large language model and Extended Greedy (LEG) framework. Our framework combines a provable approximation algorithm for population coverage optimization with LLM-driven iterative refinement that incorporates human-AI alignment to ensure solutions reflect expert qualitative guidance while preserving coverage guarantees. Experiments on real-world data from three Ethiopian regions demonstrate the framework's effectiveness and its potential to inform equitable, data-driven health system planning.
title Health Facility Location in Ethiopia: Leveraging LLMs to Integrate Expert Knowledge into Algorithmic Planning
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11479