Can GIS Save Lives?

Can GIS save lives?

Medical geography aka health geography, is an area of medical research that incorporates geographic techniques into the study of health around the world and the spread of diseases. It also includes studies on the impact of climate and location on an individual's health as well as the distribution of health services. Medical geography is an important field because it aims to provide an understanding of health problems and improve the health of people worldwide based on the various geographic factors influencing them. Health geography is the application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care (Wikipedia)

During the times of the Greek doctor Hippocrates (5th-4th centuries BCE), people have studied the effect of location on one’s health. For example, early medicine studied the differences in diseases experienced by people living at high versus low elevation. It was easily understood that those at living low elevations near waterways would be more prone to malaria than those at higher elevations or in drier, less humid areas (geography.about.com). Though the reasons for these variations were not fully understood at the time, the study of this spatial distribution of disease for sure was the beginning of medical geography. It was not until middle of 18th century when the cholera epidemic gripped London that medical geography gained significance.

During the last three decades, a powerful technology has quietly changed the way people view and live in their neighborhoods, towns, and cities. Most people remain unaware of GIS and its impact-an impact that is as far-ranging as it is useful-despite GIS having grown immensely in the last 15 years, despite hundreds of thousands of people now using the technology, and despite it affecting the daily lives of millions (ESRI).

Be it the pandemic killer swine flu or AIDS of the 20th century, the super power of GIS is its ability to add a spatial perspective to any data being analysed. This has always proved to be very useful to epidemiologists across the globe in elucidating patterns and relationships between the person, place, and time components of epidemiologist data. In addition, GIS technology has been an important tool for understanding and displaying disease or disease risk that are related directly to environmental exposure.

Today, medical geography has a number of applications as well. Since the spatial distribution of disease is still a large matter of importance, with GIS based maps playing a significant role in this field. Google Maps in the recent years has revolutionized the way in which information on several epidemics/ pandemics like swine flu, flu (Google Flu Trends) is delivered to general public.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States for instance uses what they call the Atlas of United States Mortality to look at a wide range of health factors across the U.S. Data ranges from the spatial distribution of people at different ages to places with the best and worst air quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) features health data for the world with its Global Health Atlas. In India NATMO (National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation) prepares Health and Diseases Atlas for India besides other organisations.

Though GIS has been playing a significant role in the field of medical geography, there are quite a few stumbling blocks/ limitations as well. They could be anything from accurately tracking the first incidence of a disease, the accuracy of data collected to confidentiality laws that can complicate the reporting of a disease.

A final thought: For a moment let us close our eyes and imagine the plight of our human race threatened with a plethora of heath related issues in this 21st century. Of what use could be any technology if it cannot reach and benefit the common public suffering in the veritable concrete jungles, the so-called cities and the remote villages of India? It is a pity that technologies such as GIS and many such applications do not see the light of the day, for one reason or the other. Let us explore ways to apply GIS to make our lives better!

Now, Can GIS save lives? The answer is: on the lighter vein, GIS has been my bread winner for several years now. GIS may not be the paragon of all virtues but it could be important as one of several measures for addressing the problems confronting the epidemiologist and the medical community in saving the human race, if applied in the right manner, at the right time.