GEOG 300 Geographic Information Systems

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GEOG 300Geographic Information Systems

• Health and Health Care Applications
• Dr. Neil Hanlon
• Geography Program
• 4 February 2008

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OUTLINE

• What is health geography?
• Health and GIS
• GISystems - GIScience applications
• Other applications
• Discussion
• Further reading

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What is health geography?

• Study of spatial perspectives on health and
  health care issues
• Origins
• Disease ecology
• Health care planning and distribution
• Environment health
• Close connection to public health
• Disease surveillance
• Illness prevention and health promotion
• Prioritization and planning

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What is health geography?

• Long history of cartographic and spatial science
  applications in health geography
• E.g., cholera maps of 19th century London

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Health and GIS

• Advances in data storage, CPU capacity and
  geo-referencing of health-related data
• GISystems applications means of organizing and
  displaying routinely collected health data
• Moving towards greater geo-information processing
  (incl. more comprehensive geo-coding)
• GIScience greater use of spatial analytic
  capacities to examine health issues (Rushton
  2003)

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GISystems - GIScience applications
Dot distribution map using traditional techniques
Population cartogram
Source Shaw et al. 2002
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GISystems GIScience applications
Estimated area densities based on block coded
data and kernel smoothing
Disease cases reported at census tract level
Source Pettit et al., 2003
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GISystems GIScience applications
Buffer vs. Route Network Approaches to Distance
and Travel Times
Source Oliver et al. 2007
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GISystems GIScience applications
Buffer vs. Route Network Approaches to Distance
and Travel Times
Source McGregor et al. 2007
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Other applications

• Vector-borne disease transmission (e.g., malaria,
  lyme disease)
• Hazards exposure
• Disease / health events clusters (e.g., urban
  heat island effects)
• Health systems planning evaluation
• Access and utilization studies

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Discussion

• Limitations
• Data quality, availability
• Costs
• Small numbers and variability
• Unrealized potential
• Basis for decision support in public health
• Towards a Health GIScience?

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Further reading

• Cromley EK, and McLafferty SL (2002). GIS and
  Public Health. London and New York Guilford
  Press.
• McGregor J, Hanlon N, Emmons S, Voaklander D and
  Kelly K (2006). If all ambulances had wings
  putting provincial standards of emergency service
  accessibility to the test in northern British
  Columbia. The Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine
  10(3) 163-168.
• Oliver, L, Shuurman, N and Hall, A (2007)
  Comparing circular and network buffers to examine
  the influence on walking for leisure and errands.
  International Journal of Health Geographics 6, 41
  (online).
• Pettit, K, Kingsley, G and Coulton (2003)
  Neighborhoods and Health Building Evidence for
  Local Policy (excerpts). Washington The Urban
  Institute
• Shaw, M, Dorling, D, and Mitchell, R (2002)
  Health, Place and Society Harlow Prentice-Hall.
• Rushton G (2003). Public health, GIS and spatial
  analytic tools. Annual Review of Public Health
  24 43-56.

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Further reading

• Journals
• Health and Place
• Social Science and Medicine
• International Journal of Health Geographics