(Picture taken from http://www.scdhec.gov/gis/maps_hlthdists.aspx)

In order to efficiently and effectively process and distribute large amounts of data, South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control needed a way to distribute health data and emergency information to the public that was feasible, allowed several levels of access and keep data current . That’s where GIS comes in. GIS allows health officials to make information available to the public without dealing with the issues of time and budget constraints, or privacy concerns all while providing for an efficient and effective emergency management system. The Department of Health and Environmental Control decided to implement ESRI’s applications, such as ‘Street Map’ allowing anyone to view accurate and current street data. It also allows users to ask questions and research any statistical information they want to know, including health services locations.The implementation of GIS has allowed the Department of Health and Environmental Control to update information as currently as possible, study vast boundaries without spending a lot of time or manual labor, and provides easy online access to anyone who wishes and/ or needs to be informed. One additional and positive effectof the application allows users to locate Department of Social Services, American Red Cross Emergency Operations Center, and shelters close to their home in the event of an emergency.

Source: ESRI

http://www.esri.com/library/fliers/pdfs/cs-southcarolina.pdf

Picture below taken from: http://www.scdhec.gov/images/dhec_logo.gif

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

(Picture taken from http://www.freshtilledsoil.com/wp-content/themes/freshtilledsoil/images/home/banner-1.jpg)

The TED MED  (technology, entertainment and design) 2009 Conference is currently being held in San Diego, California. It began on October 27th and will continue until the 30th. TED MED is a non-profit organization that promotes spreading knowledge to the public.  The conference is focusing on public healthcare, discussing the public’s awareness of general medical and epidemiological knowledge and ways to improve them. One main speaker attending the event is Bill Davenhall, global marketing manager for Health and Human Services Solutions at ESRI. He stated that the key to understanding good health is the environment and therefore coming up with a formula to good health: “Genetics + lifestyle + environment = risks”.  What this formula proposes is that risk management is essential in your everyday health. Many healthcare providers do not account for the environment in which people are exposed to that may be a risk factor to their health. For instance, a childhood of being exposed to lead based paint has an effect on a person’s health ten years later; it may be the underlying reason to that person’s current problems. If the doctor is aware of the person’s environment, he can better assess his patients’ needs. An effective and efficient way to do so is through using GIS and ulitmately help these medical records and envionrmnetal histories become easily and readily available to doctors everywhere.

Source: Kornfeld, Alana B. Elias, Editor, The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alana-kornfeld/the-missing-piece-in-unde_b_336329.html

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

Ghana has officially begun a GIS training workshop in order to improve health service delivery. The workshop consists of approximately twenty Health Information Officers, each representing the various districts of the Eastern region of Ghana. Dr, George Bonsu, the Eastern Regional Deputy Director of Public Health, stressed that GIS would enable health management to quickly identify areas of crises, learn the public’s accessibility to health facilities, as well as keep track of the prevalent diseases within the communities enabling them to more easily find their antidotes. All the of information provided by the GIS is essential to the new approach to decrease infant, child and maternal mortality rates. Another goal is that the Health Information Officers will take away vital knowledge from the workshop allowing them to inform others of the crucial uses of GIS in their healthcare system.  Dr. Bonsu also wishes to extend the training workshop to include all of the District Health Directorates by 2010.

Source: GBC News (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation)

http://gbcghana.com/news/29076detail.html

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

Picture taken from: http://www.thecommonwealth.org/YearbookHomeInternal/138515/

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating health authority representing the United Nations. WHO sets the tone on providing leadership on global health matters.  Some of their responsibilities include setting standards, devising the health research agenda, articulating evidential policies, monitoring trends and providing technical support. One of the ways the WHO stays effective is through its “Public Health Mapping and GIS Programme”. This program utilizes interactive mapping and allows the WHO to accurately plan, manage and monitor, and update the latest and relevant information available for decision-makers to use in the public health system. Having information readily available gives people a realistic assessment of the problem or crisis at hand, whether it be local, national or global. Therefore, they can act in the most efficient manner possible. Using GIS  gives people a better idea of their local demographics, health services locations, and geographic and environmental features.  Information and analyses are immediately posted at available to the public. It is easy to see trends and relationships formed by the epidemiological data.

Source: World Health Organization

http://www.who.int/about/en/

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

Picture to the right taken from: http://www.who.int/health_mapping/en/

Picture below taken from: http://www.topnews.in/health/regions/south-korea

After President Obama signed the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package in February, a large portion of the money has gone to healthcare. U.S. citizens, the taxpayers, will be able to easily track where and how the money is being spent.  Each state has a wide range of how they will do so, but one of the more effective ways is through GIS and interactive mapping. For instance, Colorado and Maryland both have websites that have interactive maps that show spending totals for each county and the locaton of specific projects. These websites make it easy for people to see the relationships and patterns where the money is being spent; I.e. a transportation stimulus project and the percentage of people who do not own cars. Because such a large portion of the stimulus package went to healthcare, it will be easy for states that use interactive mapping in their websites to show the improvements of their healthcare systems since recieving the money. Even though only ten states have implemented this type of display of information, it is a great and easy way to inform the people of what their government is doing.  Afterall, one of the gaurantees of this economic stimulus package is allowing the public to remain informed.

Source: Stateline.org                                                                                 

http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/29765

Picture taken from: http://blog.damballa.com/?cat=2

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

The immense popularity and growth of GIS use in healthcare has not only spread across the U.S., it has grown all over the globe.  With the support of GIS, England’s National Health Service (NHS), with the help of Dotted Eyes, will hold a seminar to promote the implementation of the latest GIS software available for health analysis applications.  The main goal is to enable primary care, NHS and ambulance trusts, and efficient and effective health authorities in order to access a wide collection of map data.  This seminar will focus on the Department of Health’s Competencies dealing with needs assessment and knowledge management.  Over the course of four years, NHS and Dotted Eyes plan to support the planning and delivery of health services. Having GIS integrated within a healthcare system provides for the effective decision making skills needed in critical issues like public health campaigns, service reviews, and resource locations.

Source: Dotted Eyes

http://thegovmonitor.com/world_news/britain/dotted-eyes-hosts-mapping-event-to-support-world-class-commissioning-of-nhs-services-6893.html

(Picture below taken from http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/09/11/nhs_logo.jpg, http://www.dottedeyes.com/)

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

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(Picture above taken from http://www.vdem.state.va.us/)

After an extensive assessment of need, Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management has implemented a new and effective GIS program in order to improve their decision making capabilities in the event of a crisis.  The program was developed by ESRI, and called Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response (VIPER) and is recognized for its ability to promote efficiency in governmental use.  Emergency officials believe that the program will allow for more effective responses because any emergency respondant can access one information resource at any time. The Department for Emergency Management wanted to enhance the communication, sharing, and analysis of information. VIPER can interconnect the community of Virginia in a time of crisis, hoping to save property or even lives, by allowing emergency official to assess emergency operations information at real time. One way Virginia’s VIPER program is interconnecting the community is by its open access to the public. Anyone can go online and inform themselves of the situation at hand. Some of the information provided on the site include accidents, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, reported public health concerns, power outages, etc.

Source: PR News Wire, ESRI

October 9, 2009

(Picture below taken from http://www.facebook.com/pages/Richmond-VA/Virginia-Department-of-Emergency-Management/49657868065)

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/virginia-deploys-enterprise-gis-for-crisis-management-63853107.html

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

(Picture take from ESRI website (http://www.esri.com)

The theme at this year’s ESRI Health GIS Conference was “Improving Our Health with GIS”.  The conference was held in Nashville, Tennesse September 21-23. Many of the speakers  focused on healthcare services’ deficiencies and – ways to reduce and/or eliminate these can be reduced or eliminated by providing the best information possible, on demand, to those who need to know.

He focused on the realization that availability of healthcare services in an area does not always translate into more cost effective services for citizens or better health. In fact, healthcare costs were potentially higher where more services were available. He found that per-capita Medicare spending, for example, had higher spending associated with discretionary services, suggesting that the lower spending regions are more efficient.

Some of the main points brought up during the lectures may be surprising. Dr. David Goodman, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School and the co-principal investigator of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, pointed out that the higher the number and availability of healthcare service centers does not mean they are less expensive or more cost efficient.  It actually is the opposite in most cases. “In fact, healthcare costs were potentially higher where more services were available. He found that per-capita Medicare spending, for example, had higher spending associated with discretionary services, suggesting that the lower spending regions are more efficient,” (Francica, Conference Review: ESRI Health GIS Conference).  The next main point was brought up by Kim Pemble’s presentation on Health Information Exchange (HIE). Being executive director, he believes the role of HIE lies in intergrating communities with electronic access to patient records and locations of health centers.  This all makes for a more effective and more efficient doctor’s visit.  A final point was discussed by commissioner of the Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs Chris McInnish. He believes that GIS mapping will allow for accurate demographic desprictions within any area, which ultimately will allow a proper assessment of need. This will also promote a greater amount of efficiency.  There in already an online device that may be helpful to  politicymakers, elected officials, etc.

Source: Joe Francica, Editor-in-Chief &Vice Publisher, Directions Magazine

October 2,2009

http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3287

(Picture take from ESRI website (http://www.esri.com)

Christine Irven, VERTICES intern

Lars Bromley devotes his career to promoting the human-rights community in countries such as South America.  Using GIS, data compilation and data analysis he, along with his “Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project” team, provide hard evidence to corraborate witness statements of human-rights violations.  Some of the things that digital imagery and digital mapping resources can do is locate small isolated villages that are affected by artillery shelling.  One of the main focuses is to make sure the evidence is clear, concise and easy to understand.   Bromley takes his research very seriously, trying not to let the tradegies get to him; i.e. mapping civilian causualties.  The purpose is to inform others, not to scare them.

Source: Elisabeth Pain

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2009_09_25/caredit.a0900115

September 25, 2009

A mistake was made regarding the date of the URISA seminar, “Crowdsourcing and the H1N1 Virus”.

This webinar will be held TOMORROW on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.

The date has been changed in the original post as well as on the website. Tell all your friends!

Thank you for your understanding!!! :)