A New Twist on Distance Medicine: “Digital Public Health”
Traditionally, there is only one way to measure a pulse — until Japanese tech company Fujitsu entered the picture and created a new tool that can calculate pulse rate based on changes in facial brightness….via smart phone, tablet or PC camera. We already have the ability to scan thermal body temperature at a distance digitally, and now with the new pulse scanning technology, implications for public health (and personal privacy) arise.
For example, we can increase early detection of cardiac conditions by allowing an individual to electronically self-monitor their pulse for irregularities in real-time from their phone — the data could be subsequently analyzed by a physician. These technologies could also be used in biosecurity, to scan for ill or febrile individuals in crowded places, in which their thermal body temperatures and/or heart rates would be potentially unknowingly scanned.
These advances continue to revolutionize the way we practice medicine and move us toward a new paradigm in public health and security. Such technologies are ripe for partnering with mapping applications, improving the detail to which we can visualize illness trends.
Source: http://www.Forbes,com
Oksana Hucul, Public Health Liaison, gis@vertices.com
Increased Severity of Antibiotic Resistance: Lethal Superbug CRE in the U.S.
We are no strangers to E.Coli. The bacteria is naturally present in our soil, water, and digestive tracts, as well as contaminating our food supply every now and then. E.Coli — along with Salmonella, Klebsiella, and a host more — all belong to the Enterobacteriaceae family of bacteria, which are becoming harder to treat due to their increasing resistance to common antibiotics over the years.
Select strains of enterobacteriaceae-based infections, such as klebsiella pneumoniae, have grown immune to the treatment of routine antibiotics, and ultimately to carbapenems (a broad spectrum class of antibiotics), which is the last resort regimen. This progressive resistance to available antibiotics has resulted in the development of “superbug” Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE — a nightmare scenario for public health and healthcare officials. CRE infections are most common in healthcare settings among individuals with already serious conditions; it has a high rate of morbidity and mortality, killing up to 50% of infected patients. At present, CRE is not a reportable disease, but it is present in 42 U.S. states as determined by two surveillance systems, the Emerging Infections Program and National Healthcare Safety Network which track healthcare-associated infections; this map indicates CRE trends and prevalence in the U.S.
The CDC has issued a Health Advisory urging healthcare professionals and facilities to take extra preventative measures to safeguard against CRE’s spread. Uniform reporting requirements would help in making CRE more readily traceable among healthcare institutions and communities.
Data Source: www.cdc.gov/hai
Oksana Hucul, Public Health Liaison, gis@vertices.com
Disease Trend in Your Area
User generated content that track and shows trend of sickness in your area. Who is sick is an interactive map that shows trending sickness within a locality, and offers the opportunity for users to discuss the symptoms with each other. It allows the users to predict their vulnerability based on their own predisposition ailments within their area.
Data Source:http://www.whoissick.org/sickness/
Renice Obure, Intern, gis@vertices.com
Hurricane Sandy: Who died, Where and Why?
Hurricane Sandy sure did wreck havoc into our lives! But it is over now and things have been fleetingly getting back to normal. The economic, health and environmental impact of the storm are just beginning to be felt but that is for the government to worry about. There are individuals however who will never forget Sandy. People who will never get to see their loved ones again, thanks to Sandy.
This interactive map showing names of people who died, where they died, nature of their death and their age was first published by the New York Times based on data that was collected as deaths were being reported.
Visit theguardian for downloadable data on all reported deaths across the continent.
Data Source: The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com
Renice Obure, Research Intern, gis@vertices.com
Visualize Planned Parenthood Clinics
LOCATION OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINICS
A new interactive map shows that planned parenthood clinics targets minority neighborhoods. The map released by a group called Protecting Black life uses census data to visualize just where the clinics have been situated. To view more click here
Visit lifesite to read more on this issue
Data Source: Protecting BlackLife
http://www.protectingblacklife.org/index.html
Renice Obure, Research Intern, Vertices, gis@vertices.com
Unilever Goes GIS
MAP OF THE UNILEVER ALERTS AS OF 09/26/2012
Lifebuoy a product of the Unilever company meant to provide clean hands and bodies has teamed up with healthmap to provide even more! Healthy people! In this interactive map Lifebuoy employs GIS to offer real time alerts and information on the current outbreaks around the globe, the exact location and the severity. Unilever goes the extra mile of providing hands-on prevention tips. And the website design is a plus, it has the consumer in mind! This is gold for globe trotters!
For more on this interactive map and real time alerts click here
Want to know more about healthmap click here
Visit healthmap projects for other interesting collaborations employing GIS technology
Source: Lifebuoy Healthmap
Renice Obure, Research Intern, Vertices, gis@vertices.org
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
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
“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
Development of risk maps to minimize uranium exposures in the Navajo Churchrock mining district
Decades of improper disposal of uranium-mining wastes on the Navajo Nation has resulted in adverse human and ecological health impacts as well as socio-cultural problems. As the Navajo people become increasingly aware of the contamination problems, there is a need to develop a risk-communication strategy to properly inform tribal members of the extent and severity of the health risks.
Researchers developed GIS-based thematic maps as communication tools to clearly identify high risk exposure areas and offer alternatives to minimize public and ecological health impacts. The maps show the location and quality of unregulated water resources and identify regulated water sources that could be used as alternatives. In addition, the maps show the location of contaminated soil and sediment areas in which disturbance of surface deposits should be avoided. The maps, in the end, helped to make suggestions for improvements for the area. It is predicted that once the maps are presented to the public, water hauling and soil use behaviors will change, and dialogue with chapter officials will be initiated to accelerate further risk reduction efforts.
To learn more about this study, please view this link.
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Coordinator, VERTICES, LLC
Disease Tracking for Indonesia
As apart of the Australian Aid Agency (AusAid) Australian Leadership Awards Fellowships (ALAF) program fourteen veterinarians from Indonesia are learning how to track and stop the spread of animal borne diseases in a three-week training program hosted by the University of Sydney. The aim if the program is to equip Indonesian veterinary epidemiologists with important skills to improve surveillance, detection and monitoring of animal borne diseases.
While in Australia, they will learn about the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in Camden before heading to Canberra to visit the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry. They will then travel to the Gold Coast for the Science Week conference of the Epidemiology Chapter of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists and finally to Orange to be hosted by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and trained in risk management in animal health. This training adds to our ability to identify disease and also to look at methods for managing animal disease. As an NGO working in this field, it is believed they can be the bridge between Government and the community by training people at home in Indonesia to learn these skills.
To learn more about this study, please view this link: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20090707/Vets-learn-how-to-track-disease.aspx
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Coordinator, VERTICES, LLC
Mapping project may link alcohol, social problems
Some officials at the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council of Jefferson County Inc., in Northern New York, think they may have found a new way to gather information relating alcohol availability to health, criminal and social problems.
The agency along with other community agencies and organizations are using geographic information system mapping to examine the density of alcohol outlets in the north country and compare that data with various social, criminal and health-related trends.
One of the most beneficial aspects of using this technology is that you are able to target and focus interventions. The GIS mapping system will find where hot spots are so that officials will know where increased police patrols are needed because the map will show where there are both a high density of alcohol outlets and high incidences of alcohol-related problems.
To learn more about this study, please view this link: http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090624/NEWS03/306249977.
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Coordinator, VERTICES, LLC
Are Ducks Contributing to the Endemicity of Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus in Asia?
Wild aquatic birds, including ducks, are the natural reservoir of influenza type A viruses and play an important role in the viruses’ ecology and propagation. Influenza A viruses can occasionally be transmitted to other avian and mammalian hosts, including humans, and can cause outbreaks of severe disease. Influenza viruses in wild aquatic birds have long been in a state of evolutionary equilibrium (stasis), and infected hosts usually show no signs of disease. Most avian influenza viruses replicate preferentially in the gastrointestinal tract of wild ducks, are excreted at high levels in feces, and are transmitted through the fecal-oral route .
However, since late 2002, H5N1 outbreaks in Asia have resulted in mortality among waterfowl in recreational parks, domestic flocks, and wild migratory birds, which contradicts the previous belief that influenza A viruses are usually nonpathogenic to the Wild waterfowl. The evolutionary stasis between influenza virus and its natural host may have been disrupted, prompting us to ask whether waterfowl are resistant to H5N1 influenza virus disease and whether they can still act as a reservoir for these viruses. To better understand the biology of H5N1 viruses in ducks and attempt to answer this question, researchers inoculated juvenile mallards with 23 different H5N1 influenza viruses isolated in Asia between 2003 and 2004. All virus isolates replicated efficiently in inoculated ducks, and 22 were transmitted to susceptible contacts. Viruses replicated to higher levels in the trachea than in the cloaca of both inoculated and contact birds, suggesting that the digestive tract is not the main site of H5N1 influenza virus replication in ducks and that the fecal-oral route may no longer be the main transmission path. The virus isolates’ pathogenicities varied from completely nonpathogenic to highly lethal and were positively correlated with tracheal virus titers. Nevertheless, the eight virus isolates that were nonpathogenic in ducks replicated and transmitted efficiently to naïve contacts, suggesting that highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses causing minimal signs of disease in ducks can propagate silently and efficiently among domestic and wild ducks in Asia and that they represent a serious threat to human and veterinary public health.
To learn more about this study, please view the in depth analysis.
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC
A spatial risk assessment of West Nile virus in British Columbia
The spread of the West Nile virus in North America and human cases in British Columbia's surrounding provinces/states.
West Nile virus has recently emerged as a health threat to the North American population after the initial disease outbreak in New York City in 1999. Since then, West Nile virus has spread widely and quickly across North America.
In this study researchers developed models of mosquito populations and created a spatial risk assessment of West Nile virus prior to its arrival in British Columbia by creating a raster-based mosquito abundance model using basic geographic and temperature data.
The result of the spatially-explicit mosquito abundance model indicates that the Okanagan Valley, the Thompson Region, Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and southeastern Vancouver Island have the highest potential abundance of the mosquitoes. After including human population data, Greater Vancouver, due to its high population density, increases in significance relative to the other areas.
Creating a raster-based mosquito abundance map enabled researchers to quantitatively evaluate West Nile virus risk throughout British Columbia and to identify the areas of greatest potential risk, prior to West Nile virus introduction. In producing the map knowledge related to mosquito ecology in British Columbia were identified and it became evident that increased efforts in bird and mosquito surveillance are required if more accurate models and maps are to be produced. Also access to real time climatic data is key for developing a real time early warning system for forecasting vector borne disease outbreaks, while including social factors is important when producing a detailed assessment in urban areas.
To learn more about this study, please view the in depth analysis.
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC
The Russian Influenza in Sweden in 1889-90
Viruses have changed history and are linked to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people over time. They have caused old diseases, such as Yellow Fever, Small Pox and influenza and they are also the cause of emerging diseases, including West Nile virus illness, Dengue fever and HIV/AIDS. The spatial patterns of viruses are often of key interest for control and surveillance.
Lars Skog, from the Royal Institute of Technology, took the time to explain The Russian Influenza in Sweden in 1889-90 at the second annual URISA: GIS in Public Health Conference. From the speech we learned that using data from a study of the 1889-90 Russian flu in Sweden with the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) allowed researchers to improve analyses and presentation of surveillance data. In 1890, immediately after the outbreak, all Swedish doctors were asked to provide information about the start and the peak of the epidemic, and the total number of cases in their region and to fill in a questionnaire on the number, sex and age of infected persons in the households they visited. General answers on the epidemic were received from 398 physicians and data on individual patients were available for more than 32,000 persons. These historic data were all reanalyzed with the use of GIS, in map documents and in animated video sequences, to depict the onset, the intensity and the spread of the disease over time. Having prepared GIS layers of the population (divided into parishes), estimations could be made for all the Swedish parishes on the number of infected persons for each of the 15 weeks studied.
To learn more about this subject matter, please view the indepth analysis.
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC
Emerging Zoonotic Diseases and the Need for Global Surveillance
Corrie Brown, DVM, PhD
Dr. Corrie Brown, DVM, PhD, Coordinator of International Veterinary Medicine for the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, provided the opening keynote address on Saturday, June 6 at the URISA second annual GIS in Public Health Conference on the topic of: Emerging Zoonotic Diseases and the Need for Global Surveillance.
As keynote speaker, Dr. Brown highlighted key ideas valuable to the world of global infectious disease challenges. Dr. Brown took time to discuss how globalization is changing epidemiology. Because there is an increase in globalized trade and travel between countries, there is becoming less separation of people, animals, and places. Because of this, emerging effects include the spreading of animal and human diseases, e.g., SARS, HPAI, Nipah, BSE. These emerging zoonotic diseases pose a great threat to the world.
Dr. Brown also spent time describing the three “steps” to battling disease in a global context. These steps include each country addressing: (1) surveillance, which refers to “keeping an eye out” for recurring or new disease, (2) will to report, which refers to a country’s decision to formally announce that disease has been found within the country’s borders, and (3) capacity to respond, which involves all sorts of response efforts from education to treatment.
Dr. Brown also informed that the concept of “one medicine,” which has been discussed for decades, has special resonance now, and it is imperative that awareness and response systems between animal and human health be coordinated and integrated, in order to effectively safeguard the global public health.
To learn more, check out this link.
Also take a look at this presentation that relates to the talk she gave at the conference.
Melissa Lawrence, Social Marketing Administrator, VERTICES, LLC
