Role of GIS In Public Health

Viswanathan.S
2010249038
 GIS addresses following issues regarding Public
Health

 Can we identify areas wherein a particular disease is prevalent?

 Can we get some clues about the possible factors that is responsible
for a particular disease?
 Where to give additional sanctions for facilities and staff?
 Where to locate an Primary Health Centre?
 Which are the areas wherein water, air, soil related diseases are
prevalent ?
 In which area the infant mortality rate is high?
 Which are the areas where the birth/death rate is high?
 GIS features for healthcare
GIS can combine many layers of information, for example:
 Demographic Data: Births, Deaths, Diseases, Population
 Infrastructure: Buildings, Roads, Floor Plans, Nursing Units
 Internal Data: Patients, Utilisation, Revenues
 Facilities: Hospitals, Ambulatories, Health Posts, Drug Stores
 Administrative Boundaries: Marz, Service Regions, Planning Areas
 Environmental: Topographic, Toxic Sites, Infectious Disease, Air

and Water Quality Testing Sites.

Major applications for GIS in Health
1. Spatial epidemiology

2. Environmental hazards

3. Modeling Health Services

4. Identifying health inequalities

5. Data access
 Case Study1: GIS for Public Health
Management
 Public health management needs information on
prevalence of diseases, facilities that are available and
needs.
 Data relating to Public health is voluminous, so difficult
for analysis.
 The data needs to be presented to bring out the
temporal and spatial nature of the problem.
 Most epidemiological data have a location and time
reference.
 GIS integrates statistical and other information in
spatially referenced form and helps in analysis.
 Study Area
 In Salem district (Tamilnadu), Attur, Konganapuram,
Omalur and Veerapandi blocks (panchayat union) have been
taken for the pilot study.
 The source for digital database is from the project
"Panchayat Resources Information System" a project funded
by Tamilnadu State Planning Commission, Conceptualized
at IRS and Commissioned at DRDA, Salem.
 OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the study is Creation of a GIS based Decision
Support Tool for Public Health Management.
 Distribution of PHCs and other Government Hospitals
 Distribution of General Morbidity Level
 Distribution of Level of Incidence for each disease
 Distribution of Morbidity for each diseases by sex
 Distribution of Morbidity by Residence (Rural / Urban)
 Distribution of Morbidity by the quality of drinking
water
 Distribution of Morbidity by Water pollution sources
 Distribution of Morbidity by Air pollution sources
 Distribution of Vital Rates, Individually
Organization of Health Information System

SPATIAL GIS NON - SPATIAL

DATA DATA BASE DATA

USER INTERACTIVE INTERFACE

LAYOUT OF MAPS
DATA INPUT
CHARTS

QUERIES
U TABULAR INFORMATION
S
E QUERIED
R RESULTS
UPDATION and
REPORTS

SPATIAL DISPLAY OF NON-

SPATIAL INFORMATION
Health Centre Information(PHC)
PHC (Primary Health Center)
 DISEASE WISE MORBIDITY
User can select
his disease of
interest
Birth Rates
Death Rates
Merging of Tabular data with Spatial data helps in analyzing
the pattern across the geographical area as depicted in the
sample below

Query Depicting the Flouride affected villages in Salem district

 Results
 The need for cost effective PC - based GIS solution for
developmental activities in Health Sector Management is met
by the system.
 The GUI of the system proves to be a friendly interface for

spatial and aspatial information retrieval.

Key features of Health Information System are
 Querying information on spatial and aspatial data,

 Print output of the maps at user defined scales and extent,

 Making an integrated analysis on spatial and aspatial data,

 Performing query on multiple themes simultaneously

Case Study2:Spatial Epidemiology
Tracking SARS in China With GIS
 Introduction
 In late 2002, a new strain of a typical pneumonia was detected in
southern China.
 By March 2003 the disease, now commonly known as Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), had spread around the
world..
A Web site established in Hong Kong tracked the locations of
reported SARS cases worldwide.
 GIS allowed early recognition that a large multistory residential
complex was a "reservoir" for the infection.
 Need For Location Based Analysis(GIS)
It rapidly became clear that the disease spread through
proximity with infected carriers. The importance of
location comes into picture now
 Where were infected cases located?
 Which areas or buildings were free of the disease?
 More important, for speeding the return to normal life,
which areas had been infected but were now declared
clear?
 Web-Based GIS For SARS
 In Hong Kong , GIS as a means of
assembling and analyzing information on the
spread and distribution of the disease.
 However, more than simply analyzing, Web-
based GIS would make it possible to
disseminate this information to the local
population and global audience as well.
 Esri China (Hong Kong) developed and
hosted the SARS Mapping Web site.
 Design& Updation of Website
 Built on ArcIMS, the system was launched with both Chinese and
English interfaces.
 It provided three basic views giving up-to-date accurate information
on the distribution of the disease in Hong Kong, China, and the world,
respectively.
 Daily updates from the China Center for Disease Control and
Prevention (China CDC), Department of Health (DoH), Government
of Hong Kong SAR, and WHO were collected, geocoded, and
presented as online maps that could be interrogated, analyzed,
navigated, and printed.
 Advantages of Web Based GIS
 Information on Web site for suspected
buildings.
 Most recent updates Highlighted.
 Functionality to measure the distance
between two buildings and check the number
of infected cases within a given radius.
 In addition, the site provided summary views
of statistics aggregated to administration
regions.
 Conclusion
The SARS Mapping Web site was developed as part of the Esri
China (Hong Kong) ongoing program of serving the local community
through the innovative deployment of GIS.
 Many lessons have been learned in combating this disease
including the importance of vigilance; clear and early notification
of outbreaks; and accurate, open dissemination of information.
 It is also a reminder of the interconnected nature of today's world
and the overriding importance of geography and location.
 Case Study3:GIS Empowers Emergency Response and Public Health Awareness

 With limited resources, these agencies need to

determine the most appropriate way to make
information available.
 To facilitate most of this data processing, the South

Carolina Department of Health and Environmental

Control (SC DHEC) has turned to geographic
information system (GIS) technology.
PROBLEM:A public health organization needed an
efficient way to serve health data and emergency
information to the public.
 Goals
 Serve data to an audience with diverse technical

capabilities and varied needs.

 Leverage information with limited resources.

 Allow different levels of access to information.

 Integrate disparate systems.

 Keep data current and well documented.

 Software Used
1. ArcIMS
2. ArcSDE
3. ArcGIS
4. StreetMap
5. Microsoft SQL Server
6. ASP
7. .NET
8. HP ProLiant Servers
 Solution
 Birth and death certificate data and demographics
 Newer datasets include Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring
System, cancer incidence data.
 Each dataset has a series of pages related to it: Create a Table,
Example, Definitions, Variable Information, Generate a Map,
FAQs, and Links.
 These maps display statistics the user has selected as well as
supplemental reference information such as the location of health
regions and facilities, major cities, and street networks.
 This Web site is also home to the Shelter Navigation system
 Results
 Procedures have been developed to keep GIS
layers accessible, current, and well
documented.
 Health problems can now be studied below
county-level boundaries without expending a
large amount of time and manual labor.
 Public health data and emergency
information is accessible over the Internet to
those who need it.
 References
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Carleen Ghio et al.,
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RESEARCH IN THE UNDERDEVELOPED WORLD - CASE STUDY OF THE
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[4] Spatial Decision Support System using GIS based infrastructure: Planning in health
& education for Ranchi., Mili Ghosh et al.,
[5] Spinfo HealthMap - A Health GIS Application
Shankar. K. N, Sathish Selvakumar., Spatial Data Pvt. Ltd.
[6] APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN
ARMENIA OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPANDED USE IN THE HEALTH SPHERE.,
Case Study by USAID.,
[7] Tracking SARS in China With GIS.,www.esri.com
Thank You
Thank You