Enabling Geographic Research Across Disciplines: Building an Institutional Infrastructure for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University

The Provision and Sustainability of GIS Services

“…The lab was open about sixty hours per week (Houser, 2006). In 2001, Harvard University Library's Geospatial Library opened, and its Center for Geospatial Analysis started in 2006 (Guan, 2011).…”

Ethics and Privacy Issues in the Use of GIS

“…There is a growing trend in academic centers of learning to provide GIS mapping and consulting services to aid the university community in public health research; one example is the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University (Guan et al, 2011). When a public health researcher obtains access to patient medical records to conduct epidemiological research, he or she must be very careful to comply with the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA's) privacy and security rules.…”

Applying GIS Methods to Public Health Research at Harvard University

“…Visualization of complex health data can inform health care policy and resource allocation and targeted interventions. Geographic analysis and examining medical research questions spatially have helped to integrate public health research across disciplines and departments at Harvard University (Guan et al 2011).…”

“…The majority of public health researchers aided by the CGA are from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. On a less frequent basis the CGA aids public health research for other Harvard entities including the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), and Harvard Initiative for Global Health (Guan et al 2011). The CGA's close collaboration with the Harvard Map Collection (HMC) and Harvard Geospatial Library (HGL) are essential in order to provide all researchers with the best possible service.…”