GIS Use in Public Health and Health Care

WhoIsSick.org

GIS-mapping is now being used for very local surveillance all over the world. This idea was the inspiration for WhoIsSick.org, a private project by California software engineer PT Lee that aggregates personal reports of illness into “crowd sourced” snapshots of local disease trends.

It was also used recently by the Toronto Star, whose “Map of the Week” project plotted the vaccination-exemption rates of local schools to suggest where an ongoing measles outbreak might strike next. And in the July/August issue of Public Health Reports, researchers from Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx map the location and quality of food sources and exercise areas to illuminate local rates of diabetes and obesity.

For more information on the revolution of GIS-mapping, please read the full article here.

The UK is providing airbase managers with a single computerised view of the entire airfield, encompassing all infrastructure, maintenance and operations. How are they doing all of this? By using GIS technology; ESRI supplies geographic information systems (GIS) that bring together maps and other information into a single computer-based model. With GIS usage, an airbase can be managed more effectively with greater control and co-ordination of resources.

For more information in this technological advancement, please read the full article here.

Cumberland County, NC

A new computer imaging tool called pictometry is changing how Cumberland County assessors conduct property reviews. Integrated with county mapping and geographic information system (GIS) databases, the pictometry system provides oblique, or angled, high-resolution aerial photographs, assessors can check against property records for the county’s 2010 reassessment.

For more information, please read the full article here.

Hurricane Katrina 8/28/05. Moss Point shown in red.

GIS is playing a key role in helping Moss Point. GIS technology is being used to aid the recovering communities by providing the means to gather, analyze and utilize a broad spectrum of data - from topography to political and governmental boundaries as well as population and demographics.

One example is Moss Point in south Mississippi who has taken full advantage of the GIS program as it recovers from Hurricane Katrina. Moss Point is now focusing on new and improved housing and promotion of the business district through downtown development and the creation of a riverfront district. The goal is to increase the city’s tax base by attracting new industry, commercial development and, most importantly, a thriving, diverse population. Moss Point is utilizing GIS to successfully execute the overall recovery plan.For more information about the effort of FEMA to use GIS to help Moss Point, please read the full article here.

GIS allows scientists to view journey of malaria through the continent

GIS usage has once again been recognized as something needed for the future of our country’s health. Rwanda recently recognized how the digital mapping can be used to help their country best utilize their limited resources. Rwanda intends to use GIS for such purposes as to find health service locations, find electricity supplies and drinking water, as well as to digitize roads, power lines and buildings. Rwanda especially wants to record how many cases of illnesses such as malaria have occurred in different parts of the country.

For more information on Rwanda and their GIS usage, please read the full article here.

GIS collaborations often start with a public health or safety threat. What began as New Jersey’s response to the anthrax scare of 2001 has developed into Hippocrates, a Web-based situational awareness tool shared by the state’s public health community. Although Hippocrates includes features such as automated e-mail messaging, GIS is at its heart.Hippocrates fuses fixed geographic data elements with dynamic data that brings maps to life. Health-specific layers include the locations of long-term care facilities and a module for mapping chemical facilities. Users can also see real-time displays of weather and traffic and the movements of ambulances via Global Positioning System devices mounted on the vehicles. Because Hippocrates is Web-based it is easy to connect all components of the state’s health system and its partners in the state emergency operations center and at the federal level.

For more information on Hippocrates in NJ, please read the full article here.

In South Carolina, GIS is improving collaboration between systems that don’t talk to each other.

Public health officials are tracking Salmonella infections by using GIS to combine data from two sources. The state has a database of licensed food service facilities and a separate lab database of reported Salmonella cases. Mapping  the overlay of the two databases gives officials a place to start to look for a cause. Because information is automatically pulled together, an epidemiologist, for example, with no GIS training can see the locations of Salmonella cases overlaid with licensed food service establishments, census data and street maps. The system has proven to be a simple way to put health data at users’ fingertips.

For more information on the GIS improvements in South Carolina, please read the article here.

LEBANON’s County’s information technology director wants to purchase a  $200,000 software program that will speed up getting mapping addresses for local emergency agencies. The reason for this is because it is believed that inadequate maps delayed response to a recent house fire in Walker Farms, leaving the home destroyed.  A map of Walker Farms could not be found on an Internet search engine, nor did FedEx, UPS or the U.S. Postal Service have street maps of the subdivision on Whitestown’s south side. A Google maps search for “Walker Farms Whitestown Indiana ,” however, listed the subdivision’s sales office as the first hit.

With the new system, a map will be automatically displayed if the address is filed in the county’s GIS system. Also wanted is a push for the county GIS system to have an addressing layer, which will better help the cause.

For more information on this GIS system for Lebanon , please read the full article here.