This blog marks the beginning of a series, packed with insights, from the nuts and bolts of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the intricacies of spatial analysis and the power of the ArcGIS platform. With a mix of history, technology, and practical insights, I’ll uncover the vital role of GIS across the health industry. By the end, you’ll see the world—and its well-being—through a new lens.

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Fradelos, E. C., Papathanasiou, I. V., Mitsi, D., Tsaras, K., Kleisiaris, C. F., & Kourkouta, L. (2014). Health Based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their Applications. Acta informatica medica : AIM : journal of the Society for Medical Informatics of Bosnia & Herzegovina : casopis Drustva za medicinsku informatiku BiH, 22(6), 402–405. https://doi.org/10.5455/aim.2014.22.402-405

An undergraduate-level certificate in Health and Medical Geography includes Health GIS coursework. Careers in Environmental Health, Public Health, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Geography are intertwined because prevention, detection, management and research on health in populations is inherently geographic.

Health-care and public health workers benefit from location-based information. Spatial data and geographic information system (GIS) technology reveal gaps in care, improve workflows, and inform plans for unexpected events.
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Geo-Spatial Data Resources are organized into four topic areas; Public Health Resources, GIS Data, Social Determinants of Health Resources, and Environmental Health Data Resources. Follow the links under your area of interest below to find publicly available datasets that are available for download and use in GIS.

NCHHSTP AtlasPlus is an interactive tool that gives users the ability to create customized tables, maps, and charts using nearly 20 years of CDC's surveillance data on HIV, viral hepatitis, STD, and TB. AtlasPlus also provides access to indicators on social determinants of health (SDOH) allowing users to view social and economic data in conjunction with surveillance data for each disease.

The Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems, or CARES, was established in 1992 with the objective of using data and tools to support better informed decision making. Our staff of professional data experts apply their skills to making maps, developing new data visualizations, and helping individuals and organizations figure out ways to do their work better. Over the past three decades we’ve collected, analyzed, and visualized data related to population health, the environment, agriculture, safety, education, and the economy.

Community Commons is a robust online platform that supports change-makers working to advance equitable community health and well-being. For over a decade, we’ve connected those driving change to the best tools, resources, data, and stories to support this work

Aggregating data from various government organizations, PeriStats provides access to the most current maternal and infant health statistics on topics such as preterm birth, infant mortality, tobacco use, Cesarean births, and health insurance coverage. Detailed information by race, ethnicity, and maternal age for many indicators is also available.

Use EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online website to search for facilities in your community to assess their compliance with environmental regulations. You can use ECHO to search for facilities, investigate pollution sources, search for EPA enforcement cases examine, create enforcement-related maps, and analyze trends in compliance & enforcement data.

Human health and well-being are closely tied to the environment, which provides benefits such as clean water, clean air, and protection from natural hazards, also known as ecosystem goods and services. EnviroAtlas provides geospatial data, easy-to-use tools, and other resources related to ecosystem services, their chemical and non-chemical stressors, and human health.

The Environmental Quality Index (EQI) presents data in five domains: air, water, land, built, and sociodemographic environments to provide a county-by-county snapshot of overall environmental quality across the entire U.S. The EQI helps researchers better understand how health outcomes relate to cumulative environmental exposures that typically are viewed in isolation.

Food environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics—interact to influence food choices and diet quality. These interactions are complex and more research is needed to identify causal relationships and effective policy interventions.

Population data by racial/ethnic group are available at the county and census tract level.Suggested citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Interactive Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke. http://nccd.cdc.gov/DHDSPAtlas. Accessed on [insert date].

The National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) brings together health data and environmental data from national, state, and city sources and provides supporting information to make the data easier to understand. The Tracking Network has data and information on environments and hazards, health effects, and population health.

State Cancer Profiles is an interactive map engine produced in collaboration between the National Cancer Institute and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was developed with the goal to provide a geographic profile of cancer burden in the United States and reveal geographic patterns of cancer incidence, mortality, risk factors for cancer, and cancer screening, across different population subgroups.

The Food Access Research Atlas presents an overview of food access indicators for low-income and other census tracts using different measures of supermarket accessibility; provides food access data for populations within census tracts; and offers census-tract-level data on food access that can be downloaded for community planning or research purposes.

USGS produces accurate geologic maps and 3-D geologic frameworks that provide critical data for sustaining and improving the quality of life and economic vitality of the Nation. They also organize, maintain, and publish the geospatial baseline of the Nation's topography, natural landscape, built environment and more.

The global health and medical applications of GIS are numerous and many countries currently lack the benefits of GIS to strengthen their health information system. By connecting maps, apps, data and people the WHO GIS Centre is dedicated to support countries and partners to make informed public health decisions faster and to extend the reach of geospatial information across the organization. By continuing to expand its collaboration with partners the WHO GIS Centre aims at bridging inequalities within and across countries.

CIESIN conducts interdisciplinary research related to human interactions in the environment. Their site includes tools, such as data conversion applications, geospatial database queries, and online mapping tools, free downloadable geospatial data, and more.

Geospatial data in both vector and raster formats including GIS data and scanned maps.

Allows users to view current infectious diseases with an interactive mapping tool. The data is aggregated by disease and results can be displayed by either disease or country and provides easy access to the original alert. This site integrates outbreak data from a variety of sources.