Accessiblity to Primary HealthCare in Western Rwanda
Rwanda has been on the forefront for implementing primary healthcare networks better than most developing countries in the recent years. GIS mapping has been found effective in understanding the accessibility of these facilities to the population for purposes of better planning and modelling for other nations. Primary health care is the backbone for achieving the millennium development goals(MDG’s) which advocate for affordable and accessible health care to all.
PRIMARY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES IN WESTERN RWANDA
Source: International Journal of Health Geographic
Renice Obure, Research Intern, Vertices, gis@vertices.org
What’s Happening in Haiti?
Haiti Aid Map offers a quick way of viewing and navigating the many projects that are going on right now in Haiti. The data on the site represents only a fraction of all NGO projects, but even in the health sector alone, there are over 160 current documented and mapped projects running. The initiative is focused on collecting information on NGOs’ work at the project level and making this information transparent to donors, other NGOs, businesses, governments, and more through an easy to access online interactive map. Check it out here!
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Mapping Sanitation Facilities in Bangladesh
SHARE (Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity) is a consortium of five organizations that have come together to generate rigorous and relevant research for use in the field of sanitation and hygiene. SHARE is a five year initiative (2010-2015) funded by the UK Department for International Development (shareresearch.org). An objective of SHARE is to both synthesize existing knowledge and to generate new knowledge for improved policy and practice.
In April 2012, Joseph Pearce and Sue Cavill, of SHARE’s partner WaterAid, were in Bangladesh to pilot the SHARE-funded Sanitation Mapper – an online tool to map sanitation facilities. The tool was designed to provide both area-based mapping and point-based mapping in efforts to provide useful information that could impact decision-making, planning, and the overall understanding of access to sanitation in particular areas of interest. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has offered individuals with a mechanism for better understanding and addressing pressing issues and need. The pilot Sanitation Mapper offers a way for managers and planners to better understand where increased access to sanitation is needed.
To read more about the April 2012 Bangladesh pilot project, check out Mapping Sanitation Facilities in Bangladesh.
Pearce and Cavill have since then conducted further testing and training of the Sanitation Mapper in Tanzania in June 2012.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Mapping Toilets in Mumbai Slums Yields Unexpected Results
In the Mumbai slum known as Cheeta Camp, lavatory facilities are dismal, and this issue is quite alarming from an urban public health perspective, as it deals with sanitation.
James Potter and several students from the Harvard School of Public Health who traveled to Mumbai to research the city’s slums decided to create a map of Cheeta Camp’s toilets. Variables were investigated like where they were located, who had put them up, how they functioned, and if they were even operational. You can explore the map here.
As stated in the article, “the act of naming streets, counting citizens and mapping facilities turns information into an advocacy tool.” Certainly, gaining a better understanding of the location of toilets, availability, and ratio of toilets to people is an extremely valuable partition of information necessary in understanding urban public health in an environment of this nature.
The students have given the map to local NGO’s and the medical director of Cheeta Camp’s health center, who believe that this information will be helpful. Upon finalization of the map, the students from Harvard will present it to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, the city’s governing body.
Read the full article here.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
GIS Techniques to Track Soldier Health
The U.S. Army Public Health Command’s G-6 Directorate of Information Management/Information Technology has a small team of geographers who use maps to tell detailed stories. By taking data with spatial components and applying geographic information systems techniques- relationships, patterns, and trends can become revealed in a variety of visual formats.
Shannon Lowe, one of the three geographers with the GIS team said, “A geographic information system is a technique that integrates hardware, software and data to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of geographically referenced data” (Hawaii Army Weekly).
During the first Gulf War, GIS technology was used to capture, manage, analyze, model and display data that tracked smoke and particulates from the Kuwait oil well fires. This information was linked to the locations and movements of Soldiers and units to determine exposures and possible health risks.
Tracking smoke particulates from fires and linking this information to the health and geographic locations of soldiers is just one way that GIS technology has been used to understand health in relationship to environmental exposures. The advancements of GIS over the years has enhanced the capabilities of its applications and arenas in which is can be used. All in all, GIS has provided individuals with invaluable tools for looking at data, interpreting it, and finding accurate answers to questions that were more difficult to answer prior.
Read the original article published by Hawaii Army Weekly.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Striking Differences in Life Expectancies in Baltimore Neighborhoods
City health data from Baltimore, Maryland illustrates a startling difference between the life expectancy of those in rich and poor neighborhoods. Life expectancy for those living the the richest neighborhoods is 20 years longer than for those in the poorest.
The Baltimore Sun used city data to develop an interactive map that illustrates these striking differences. The city of Baltimore has created Healthy Baltimore 2015, which is a plan to target the top 10 health-related ailments that are impacting people there. For the first time, the city is utilizing mapping in such a way that illustrates these specific and comprehensive goals, which include smoking cessation and obesity reduction.
Read the full article, and check out the interactive map.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks Interactive Map
The Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations provides a Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks interactive map that displays a visual plot of the global outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, and other diseases that can be easily prevented by vaccines.
Since 2008, the project has sought to promote awareness of global health problems that are easily preventable via inexpensive and effective vaccinations.
Check out the Vaccine-Preventable Outbreaks interactive map!
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
New York Health Department Restaurant Ratings Map
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene performs unannounced sanitary inspections of every restaurant at least once a year. This interactive map displays a letter grade for each inspected establishment, which is representative of a violation point system. The interactive map offers individuals with the opportunity to explore the letter grades of all of the restaurants in the city, along with violation descriptions.
Check out the NY Health Department Restaurant Ratings interactive map!
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Chicago’s Cooling Centers Interactive Map
Many regions in the United States just underwent a searing heat wave, and more are expected to come this summer. These oppressive record high temperatures make being indoors in cooler temperatures more desired and safer in general, but access to air conditioning is not always an option for individuals.
The City of Chicago offers a “Cooling Centers” interactive map that displays locations where individuals can escape the oppressive heat.
Check out the Cooling Centers interactive map.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
UK flood warning map: Delivering Up-To-Date Information
The UK Environment Agency provides data from its many nationwide monitoring stations that issue flood warnings and alerts. All of the most recent alerts (within 15 minutes) are displayed on an interactive map, alerting citizens of potential hazards while additionally offering them a custom alert function that sends warnings right to their Facebook accounts if there is a flood warning near home or a place of work.
To learn more about this mapping initiative, check out the full article here.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Mapping Type 2 Diabetes Hotspots in London
Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London used Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to create detailed maps with type 2 diabetes data.
The resulting maps highlighted geographical hotspots for type 2 diabetes, and these hotspots revealed fantastic similarities to poverty maps created during the late 19th Century by Charles Booth.
The utilization of GIS helps local authorities and those in the field of healthcare and medicine to properly assess and tackle many health-related hardships that communities face. GIS has provided an invaluable tool for understanding, assessing, and addressing the many pressing health issues that populations encounter daily.
To learn more about the type 2 diabetes mapping project in London, please explore the article and additional information published by Queen Mary, University of London.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Interactive California Healthcare Atlas
The California Healthcare Atlas presented by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) helps to visualize healthcare information and offers a better snapshot of the healthcare “landscape” of the state.
The application is interactive and utilizes GIS mapping. The application provides detailed information about hospitals, finance data, primary care clinics, hospital reports, and more.
Access it here: Interactive California Healthcare Atlas
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
“Geo-medicine” Improving Public Health
“Geo-medicine” combines geographic information system (GIS) software with clinical databases. The resulting maps have been proven useful in providing insights that might improve individual and population health by revealing hidden disease patterns.
In healthcare, this approach is useful in finding correlations between health conditions and the geographical areas where patients live. For example, GIS maps can correlate health conditions and environmental factors in the areas where patients grew up in comparison to where they currently live to gain a better understanding of the implications of those varying environments on human health.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Mapping Women’s Reproductive Health in Texas
The Texas Tribune put together an interactive map to show how many pregnancies, births, and abortions occur across Texas. All of the data included was collected and published by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and is reflective of 2009.
The map shows some of the DSHS statistics broken down by age and race or ethnicity.
Source: The Texas Tribune
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Illinois Public Health Community Map
The purpose of the map is to make information about the quality of health in communities available to the public. Coupling GIS and health data is useful for advocacy, planning, and policy. The Illinois Public Health Community map uses clinical data from hospital and emergency room discharges. This type of data can be used to investigate the health needs of a community, county, or region.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Global Disease Outbreak Monitoring
HealthMap was created by a team of professionals at Children’s Hospital Boston. This map displays online informal sources for disease outbreak monitoring and real-time surveillance of emerging public health threats. The information provides a wide range of emerging infectious diseases all over the world, reaching a diverse audience, from a diverse array of sources including online news, validated official reports, eyewitness reports, and more. This unification of information made available on a global interactive map provides a comprehensive yet effective way to observe the current global state of infectious and emerging diseases.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Interactive Mapping & Health Literacy Profiles
The Canadian Council on Learning has developed an interactive map that provides easy access to health literacy profiles for more than 49,000 communities and neighborhoods in Canada. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines five levels of literacy that the interactive map shows ranging from very poor literacy skills to strong skills.
Using GIS transforms quantitative and qualitative information pertaining to locations (from point data to entire countries) into visually striking and understandable interactive maps and other graphics. Interactive maps like these can make it easier to understand health-related issues because maps provide a geographic visual of the extent of what is happening.
Lisa MacCarrigan, Research Assistant, Vertices
HealthLandscape Maps the H1N1 Outbreak Across the Country
“A critical component of pandemic preparedness and response is the nation’s healthcare infrastructure. The current H1N1 (Swine Flu) outbreak, and its still unknown virulence and mortality rate, can act as a wakeup call to state and local health policy makers and planners who will guide the nation’s response. This interactive map provides county-level counts of H1N1 (Swine Flu) cases, and details on the Healthcare Resources and the Healthcare Workforce in the United States. Total Cases: 11,440″
- www.healthlandscape.org.”
To view the interactive version of this map and to see the number of cases per county across the country please click here.
(Picture taken from: https://www.healthlandscape.org/h1n1/index.cfm)
“Updated as new information becomes available with data on U.S. Human Cases of H1N1 Flu Infection reported by the CDC and state health departments where cases are reported. Where inconsistencies exist, we attempt to reconcile through reviews of media reports in the states where cases are reported. According to the CDC, the ongoing outbreak of novel influenza A (H1N1) continues to expand in the United States and internationally. CDC expects that more cases, more hospitalizations and more deaths from this outbreak will occur over the coming days and weeks. For more information, see CDC H1N1 Flu. A complete listing of state health departments is available here on the CDC website. Data for MN, UT, and VA are reported by region or health district, and the map shows all cases in a centrally located county.” (HealthLandscape)
“Confirmed Cases: 11,440 as of 6/11/2009 5:00PM EST. HealthLandscape total cases may lag CDC and state cases where county level data is unavailable.”
“Data Definitions and Sources:
- 2006 non-federal Family Practice MDs (American Medical Association Master File)
- 2006 non-federal General Practice MDs (American Medical Association Master File)
- 2005 Registered Nurses, hospital-based only, does not include registered nurses in private physician offices, nursing facilities, etc. (American Hospital Assocation Survey)
- 2005 Airborne Infection Isolation Rooms in short-term general hospitals (American Hospital Assocation Survey)
- 2007 Population Estimate (US Census Bureau)
- 2005 Estimated Persons in Poverty (US Census Bureau)
- 2005 Persons Without Health Insurance (US Census Bureau)”
(Health Landscape)
Source: Information taken directly from HealthLandscape
https://www.healthlandscape.org/h1n1/index.cfm
Christine Irven, VERTICES intern
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