Geographical Information Systems and Health: Current State and Future Directions

Shaw, Nicola T.

Given that we know that patients tend to access health care services within their local geographic communities, the application of geographical information systems (GIS) to health service planning & provision would seem a logical progression. However, whilst the use of GIS in public health & epidemiology (for example, to map incidence and prevalence of disease) is reasonably well developed [1] the use of well known use of GIS, in a rudimentary form, is that of Dr. John Snow in London, England, in 1854 when he mapped the incidences of a cholera outbreak demonstrating that a specific water pump was the cause of infection [5] . Removing the handle from that pump almost immediately reduced the number of cases of cholera; though Snow himself points out that the numbers were already diminishing when he removed the pump handle. On a wider scale today the World Health Organization (WHO) issues disease alerts that are mapped at http://www. healthmap.org and provided in near-real time. Traditionally, such maps are used to plan service provision. In the case of the WHO, it may be where to send their expertise and resources; or at a more local level it may be where to build a new hospital.