GIS and Public Health
Judy Seidel, MEDes, PhD Alberta Health Services CIPHI, Calgary, October 03, 2011 Overview of Presentation
| What is GIS
| History of Maps in Health
| GIS Components and Benefits
| Applications Around the World What is GIS?
| Geographic Information Systems & Science What is GIS?
| a computer-based system for input, storage, manipulation, and output of geographic information
| a class of software
| combines software with hardware, data, a user, etc., to solve a problem, support a decision, help to plan
(GoodChild 1997) Why is GIS Important to PH?
| GIS provides a digital lens to explore the connections between people, their health and well-being, and the changing physical and social environments.
(Cromely & McLafferty, 2002) Geography and Public Health
| Populations at risk
| Health outcomes
| Risk factors
| Associations between risk factors & health outcome
| Health interventions History of Maps Hippocrates 5th-6th BCE
• Effect of location on one’s health (On Airs, Waters and Places)
• Spatial distribution of disease (beginning of Medical Geography) Plague 1300s and 1600s
Source: New York Academy of Medicine Library Dr. Valentine Seaman New York 1798
• Plotted incidence of yellow fever • Location-related • Seasonal Yellow Fever New York 1798
Source: National Library of Medicine John Snow mid 1800s
Cholera outbreak in London Present day John Snow John Snow
• Distribution of deaths • Cluster near the Broad Street pump • Father of Epidemiology? Father of Medical Geography? Clusters of Cholera in London
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow GIS is More than Mapping
| patterns (disease, exposure, environmental conditions)
| relationships (people, places, interactions, environments)
| trends (over time and space) GIS Functions
| Spatial database management
| Visualization and mapping
| Internet and web-based GIS
| Public health informatics
| Mobile device – capture & retrieve field data
| Real-time GIS Digital Spatial Layers
Source: http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=21&t= Map Types
Source: ESRI 2009 GIS Applications in AHS
| Standardize geographic areas
| Population demographics
| Accessibility to health services
| New facility planning
| Human resources planning
| Health service utilization
| Chronic disease site planning Defining Rural-Urban Continuum
Source: Alberta Health Services, 2011 Age & Income Distribution in Alberta
Source: Alberta Health Services, 2011 New Hospital Catchment Areas
Source: Alberta Health Services, 2011 1 Hour Access to Hospital Services
Source: Alberta Health Services, 2011 Human Resource Planning
Source: Alberta Health Services, 2011 Public Health Applications
| Chronic disease prevention
| Community health assessment & planning
| Injury Prevention
| Communicable disease prevention & control
| Environmental health
| Emergency and preparedness response Chronic Disease Prevention
| Health promotion (alcohol and tobacco use)
| Location of product sales, SES and public schools
| Cancer clusters (location, exposures, SES, housing)
| Diseases (age, sex and race adjusted) Classic Cancer Mortality Map
Source: Globocan, 2002 Heart Disease
Source: ESRI 2009 Community Health Assessment & Planning
| Access to health services (distance decay, SES, availability)
| Community health assessments (SES, housing, language, work type, ethnicity, health issues and outcomes)
| Public health observatories (e.g., UK, Saskatoon) Bhutan Access to Health Services
Source: Bhutan Living Standard Survey, 2007 Injury Prevention
| Intentional injury
| Unintentional injury Child Pedestrian Accidents
Source: http://data.gov.uk 2011 Death Rates by All Injuries
Source: Centre for Disease Control, 2011 Communicable Disease
| Vaccine preventable diseases (targeting immunization programs, identifying and predicting pockets of need)
| Vector-borne and parasitic diseases (track spread of vector & disease outbreaks)
| Sexually transmitted diseases (hot spot analysis)
| Tuberculosis (spread and hot spots)
| Communicable disease surveillance system (putting it all together) Environmental Health
| Nonionizing radiation (potential exposure for future follow up)
| Air emissions (target communities for health screening)
| Drinking water pollution (target communities at risk of septic contamination, nitrates and VOCs)
| Environmental toxins (potential exposure, hazardous sites)
| Environmental equity – communities at disproportional risk
| Food safety Environmental Health
| Animal health and relationship to human health
| Public Health Tracking Network (CDC – integrated health and environmental data for monitoring, responding to and reducing the burden) http://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showHome.action Water Monitoring
Source: GESAP 2009 Cranberry Bogs and Tree Spray
Brody JG, et al 2002 BSE Outbreaks
Source: OIE, 2003 What can GIS Do?
| It can inform and education (professionals & public)
| It can support decision making (evidence-based)
| It can assist in planning (safety, effectiveness, efficiency, quality)
| It can help modify or change practices
| It can identify spatial relationship that might otherwise be overlooked. The application of GIS to Public Health and Environmental Health is limited by only your IMAGINATION!