Transcript publichealth - EPPS Academic Computing

GIS in Public Health
Technical Assessment
GISC-6383 Management and Implementation
October 27, 2005
Jill McElroy
Semahgn A. Belew
Sami J. Alsahhar
Yoseph A. Getachew
GIS in Public Health
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Examples of Disease
Outbreaks Relating to Location
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CHOLERA in areas lacking safe water
supplies
MALARIA where there is a
proliferation of mosquitoes
HIV/AIDS tends to spread where
transportation networks connect to
outbreak areas
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Example of Managing
Health Materials
In 2004,
Nebraska
utilized GIS
to assess
distribution
of limited flu
vaccines.
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What is Public Health?

Many different interpretations
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Includes Epidemiology: “The branch of

Includes less-complex functions
medicine that deals with the study of the causes,
distribution, and control of disease in
populations. ”
• Health Surveillance
• Disease Prevention and Control
• Public Health Planning
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Needs for this Assessment
1) Health Analytic Support
for prevention and control of:
• Communicable diseases
• Chronic diseases
• Injuries
Analyses range from less complex, as in Health
Surveillance, to complex, as in Epidemiology.
2) GIS capabilities to enable management of
distribution of health services and materials.
3) Money. Public Health organizations are often
on tight budgets.
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Highlighted GIS Software
GIS Software
Developing
Organization
Price
EpiInfo / EpiMap
Center for Disease
Control (CDC)
Free
HealthMapper
World Health
Organization
(WHO)
Free
SIGEpi
Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO)
ArcView
Environmental
Systems Research
Institute (ESRI)
$100 Health Inst.
$500 Non-Profit
$1000 Private
$1500 + Maintenance
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WHO: HealthMapper
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About HealthMapper:
 Original version 1993 by World Health Organization
 Supports range of infectious diseases in over 60 countries
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Public Health Needs Capable of Addressing:
 Analysis of disease outbreaks, chronic diseases, injuries
 Limited Management of distribution of health resources
 Software is Free
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Data Format Support:
 Import and modify shapefiles
 Import and Link: Excel, Access, dBase, .CSV, .REC (EpiInfo)
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System Requirements:
Windows (98/NT/2000/Me/XP)
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WHO: HealthMapper
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Advantages:
Free: can be downloaded from WHO website
 Very useful in supporting health surveillance, disease
prevention and control
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 Disadvantages:
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Limited complex statistical capabilities
Publicly funded programs
Limited Technical support
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EpiInfo / EpiMap
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About EpiInfo / EpiMap:
 Created by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in 1985
 Latest Version: Epi Info™ Version 3.3.2, released Feb 2005
 Over 1,000,000 downloads in 180 countries
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Public Health Needs Capable of Addressing:
 Meets most needs in epidemiological studies, such as
disease outbreaks or other public health analysis
 Software is Free

Data Format Support:
 Import and modify shapefiles
 Compatible with ESRI ArcView, MS Access, Excel, dBase,
CSV, XML
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System Requirements: (Windows 95/NT/98/2000/Me/XP)
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CDC: EpiInfo/EpiMap
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Advantages of EpiInfo:
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Meets most needs in epidemiological studies
Free, can be downloaded from CDC WebPages
With a little computer experience can do simple useful
analysis
Disadvantages of EpiInfo:
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Lacks statistical spatial data analysis
EpiInfo and EpiMap are two stand-alone programs
Publicly funded programs
Limited Technical support - reference to available
manual
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SIGEpi
About SIGEpi:
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Developed by Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO), latest version 1.4
Supports Multi-languages (Spanish and Portuguese)
Public Health Needs Capable of Addressing:
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Provides complex analysis methods for health data
Management of distribution of health resources
Data Format Support:
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Reads and processes files in Shapefile and ArcInfo
coverage formats from ESRI; other formats include
Vector Product Format (VPF); CAD and EpiMap
SIGEpi has RDBMS that use MS Access and interchange
in other formats (Dbase, Excel, Btrieve, EpiInfo)
System Requirements: Windows (98/NT/2000/Me/XP)
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SIGEpi
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Price:
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Advantages:
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Health and Academic Institutions ($100)
Non-Profit Agencies ($500)
Personal and Private Agencies ($1,000)
Offers a broad GIS platform with functions for statistical
spatial data analysis integrated into the program
Creates geographical layers based on geographic data from
GPS receivers
SIGEpi was built based on ESRI’s MapObjects
Disadvantages:
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It has limitations in editing geographic databases
Maintenance & Technical support via Discussion forum or
emails or reporting errors or recommendations
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ESRI: ArcView
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About ESRI ArcView:
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Public Health Needs Capable of Addressing:
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Analysis of disease outbreaks, chronic diseases, injuries
Management of distribution of health resources
Data Format Support:
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Company started in 1969, founded by Jack and Laura
Dangermond, privately held company
ArcView® 1.0 released in 1992
Direct read and import capabilities of more than 70
different formats, including rasters (images) and ODBC
Import, edit, and export of shape files
Price: Single user license $1500
Annual Maintenance: $500 to $3,000
System Requirements: Windows (98/NT/2000/Me/XP)
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ESRI: ArcView
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Technical Assistance:
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Advantages:
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Free for initial year of purchase
Industry leader in Public health sector
Many extensions built on ArcView
Software is scalable
Custom Scripting Capabilities - in VB, C++, .NET
Disadvantages:
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Expensive application and maintenance package
Need to have hands-on experience or extensive
training
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Data Formats
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Each offers Free Online Training Manuals
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Each product offers Data format support for:
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Shapefiles (.SHP)
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Excel
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.CSV
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MS Access
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dBase
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.REC
Each product can read data from a GPS
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Comparison Matrix
HealthMapper
EpiInfo
/EpiMap
SIGEpi
ArcView
Health
Analytic
Support
Needs Met?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
GIS
Capabilities?
Limited
Limited
Yes
Yes
Cost
Free
Free
$100 Health
inst.
$500 Non-Profit
$1000 Private
$1500 single
user
$500 -$3000
Annual
maintenance
Tech Support
None
Limited
None
Free 1st year
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Conclusion
Our recommendations are based on:
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Health Analytic Support:
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GIS capabilities:
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HealthMapper (Health Surveillance)
EpiMap / EpiInfo (Epidemiology)
ArcView
SIGEpi
Cost:
 HealthMapper and EpiMap / EpiInfo are free
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