GIS is a useful tool in elucidating patterns and relationships between the person, place, and time components of epidemiologist data. In addition, the most direct use of GIS technology is as a tool for understanding and displaying disease or disease risk that are related directly to environmental exposure (Lloyd252). The Public Health Research Laboratories (PHRL) uses epidemiology in conjunction with GIS in the following areas: 1) Bioterrorism prevention/planning, surveillance, and response. 2) Communicable disease control. 3) Environmental epidemiology. 4) Refugee Health. 5) Incorporation of GIS into epidemiology research and performing descriptive and analytic studies of epidemiology of diseases. 6) Investigation of disease clusters (phrl.org).
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GIS Use in Public Health & Healthcare 