1. Geographic Information System (GIS)
in Health

2. Agenda
● GIS in Health: WHAT, WHY?
● HOW: GIS Applications in Health
● Some Live Examples
● Free and Open Source GIS Software

3. Early GIS Application in Health
● Broad Street cholera
outbreak (1854) –
Snow's theory that
cholera came from
contaminated water
differed from a
commonly held theory
tht diseases were
transmitted by
inhaling vapors.

4. ●GIS in Health: WHAT, WHY?
● Medical Geography – how disease & health
care are distributed spatially.
● Epidemiology – maps progress of disease,
famines, toxic spills and other health disasters
● Health facility surveys – existing, best locations
for new ones.
● Hospital admin, pharmaceutical companies,
managed care providers, etc,

5. HOW: GIS Applications in Health
● Breast Cancer cases at Cape Cod
● Malaria cases in Kenya
● Nursing Homes in Florida
● Large Health Service Providers tracking service
areas (including HMOs)
● A University Medical Center servicing more than
34,000 patients and about 0.5 million
outpatients.
● Tracking hazardous substances (spill)

6. Some Live Examples
● District Health Information System -
http://www.dhis2.org/
● Epispider -
● http://www.epispider.net/
● Geolocate4Health -
http://telehealth-ph.appspot.com/g4h/#pois.list

7. Free and Open Source GIS
Software
● Quantum GIS - http://www.qgis.org/
● OpenLayers - http://openlayers.org
● Open Source - http://opensourcegis.org/
● Free GIS - http://freegis.org/

8. Resources / References
● Health and GIS -
http://www.spatialhydrology.com/health/health.htm
● International Journal of Health Geographics -
http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/
● GIS Use in Public Health and Healthcare -
http://healthmap.wordpress.com/