Health and GIS

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Health and GIS

• The Municipal Opportunity

Hugh Williams416-738-9583hwilliams_at_skeinc.com
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Intro to SKE Inc.

• URISA sustaining member.
• Ontario govt. Vendor of Record
• 14 years of growth and leadership in GIS
  implementation.
• Key directions
• A) Ontario GeoPortal and related business
  applications
• B) Provide hosted spatial cloud computing (SC2)
  solutions.
• C) Custom application development.
• Partner with iHealthSolutions for health sector
  GIS requirements and applications.

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Theories How Swine Flu is Being Transmitted
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Presentation Discussion

1. Public health has many key programs that GIS can
   support.
2. Public health recognizes need for GIS but many
   challenges exist.
3. Opportunities for municipalities to leverage /
   support public health.
4. New technologies / solutions available to make it
   easier such as spatial cloud computing.

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Health Delivery in Ontario (101)

• Public Health Units (36)
• Deliver programs to keep people healthy (healthy
  babies, tobacco, rabies, immunization, drinking
  water, STD/AIDS education, oral hygiene, many
  more)
• Have a municipal footprint.
• Co-funded through municipalities and Ministry of
  Health and Long Term Care.
• LHINs (Local Health Integration Networks) (14)
• Plan and fund health care system delivery
  hospitals, CCACs, health care providers.
• Footprint does not follow municipal boundaries.

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GIS Can Support..

• Population health and analysis. (at risk, status,
  behaviours).
• Disease monitoring / tracking / remediation e.g.
  West Nile Virus.
• Service delivery improvement e.g. inspection
  routes and territory assignment.
• Healthcare access.
• Information management e.g. timely access to
  information.

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GIS Capacity in Public Health

• Varies !
• From little capacity to dedicated GIS.
• Leads to non-standard approaches haves and
  have nots.
• IT often not a spending priority when viewed
  against health program delivery.
• GIS not core business although well understood
  in epidemiology
• GIS Interest Group through APHEO (Assoc Public
  Health Epidemiologists of Ontario).
• PHAC (Public Health Agency Canada) support.
• Municipal partnerships enabling capability.

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GIS Usage in Public Health(stats from 2008
survey 22 health units, mostly Epis)

• 82 ESRI software.
• 41 some training in GIS or spatial analysis.
  82 have knowledge of GIS applications 1/3 of
  respondents good at GIS.
• Most commonly used for a) exploring data, b)
  geocoding, c) buffer analysis. Other cluster
  analysis grid analysis network analysis
• Project use includes vector borne surveillance
  e.g. West Nile (79) cluster analysis, distance
  to hospital, ward profiles, population health
  maps.
• Over 70 feel standards lacking and needed.

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Health GIS Challenges

• Data / Information
• Access
• Integration
• Sharing / publishing.
• Privacy
• Core functionality e.g. geocoding
• Cost architecture and implementation.
• Capacity training and dedication.
• Corporate support

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Municipal Opportunity

• Comments from Leeds, Grenville, Lanark Health
  Unit
• good relationship with municipalitys GIS
  coordinator and technician
• Cant concentrate anywhere near as much on GIS
  as I would like and we cant afford a dedicated
  GIS technician.
• Potential for cost savings by sharing GIS
  resources
• Envision a GIS web portal (enabling sharing)
  maintained by an external provider.
• Data privacy a concern, but ways to overcome this.

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Municipal Opportunity

• Several examples of municipal GIS support of
  public health Waterloo York Sault Ste.
  Marie/Algoma many others
• How is your municipal GIS supporting the health
  units role in health promotion and healthy
  communities?
• New technology services-based solution Spatial
  Cloud Computing

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Spatial Cloud Computing (SC2)

• SC2 provides information integration, publishing
  and access through a geographic interface.
• Service-based model that requires little or no
  additional technology infrastructure / data /
  capacity.
• Privacy concerns addressed health data dont
  leave the health unit.
• Municipal GIS data and analysis capability SC2
  would quickly provide a complete solution.
• SKE Inc. implementing SC2 through multi-award
  winning GeoPortal application.

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Thank you.

• Hugh Williams
• SKE Inc.
• hwilliams_at_skeinc.com
• 416-738-9583