Geographic Information Systems: Usability, Perception, and Preferences of Public Health Professionals

Abstract

BackgroundAnalyzing and visualizing health-related databases using Geographic Information Systems (GISs) becomes essential in controlling many public health problems.ObjectivesTo explore the perception and preferences of public health professionals (PHPs) about the usability of GISs in public health fieldMethodsFor this scoping review, the investigators searched Medline Ovid, PubMed, IEEE, Scopus, and GeoBase databases. A total of 105 articles were identified. Nine articles met the inclusion criteria.ResultsIterative evaluations, training, and involvement of GIS end users are productive in GIS usability. More methodologies are needed to support the validity of GIS usability studies. The exchange of GIS technology impacts public health policy and research positively.DiscussionPHPs are aware of the use of GISs in the public health field, and the exchange of visualized health data in determining inequalities and inaccessibility issues.ConclusionGISs are essential to control public health problems, if the related health datasets are analyzed carefully and if the mapping reports are extensively evaluated and interpreted.

Public and Population Health Informatics: The Bridging of Big Data to Benefit Communities

“…With increased accessibility to health delivery data by both public health and health care professionals, there has been an increase in the use of spatial analytics to monitor and understand the spread of disease and outbreak management responses 32 . For example, geographic information systems (GIS) allow communities to better utilize public health resources by targeting a community immunization response strategy to outbreak clusters 33 , although selection bias could be an issue, particularly for those from rural settings, certain ethnic or racial groups, and those with lower socio-economic status 34 .…”

Geospatial Science and Point-of-Care Testing: Creating Solutions for Population Access, Emergencies, Outbreaks, and Disasters

“…Public health professionals appreciate the importance of GISs and visualized health data in determining inequalities and inaccessibility issues and in addressing infectious disease epidemiology (110,111). Geospatial solutions include isolation laboratories and diagnostics isolators for highly infectious diseases, but limited availability of this vital critical care support puts population clusters at risk (90,112,113).…”

Integration of New Data Layers to Support the Land Cover and Use Information System of Spain (SIOSE): An Approach from Object-Oriented Modelling

“…In the SIOSE-INNOVA project, we consider usability as an indicator to determine the ease with which the SIOSE database can be used, but also to refer to the methods that serve to improve usability in the design process. In the end, usability is nothing more than the sum of several factors that control how users interact with a system; among these factors are speed of use, ease of learning, accessibility, navigability, user efficiency, and error rates in use [5].…”

“…Usability can also be seen as a characteristic of any system built to be used: (1) by a specific type of user; (2) to perform a series of tasks allowed by the system; and (3) in a specific context in the interaction [5]. It is especially important to describe in detail these three elements in the SIOSE system: the actors; the tasks; and the various contexts.…”