Putting Chronic Disease on the Map: Building GIS Capacity in State and Local Health Departments

Abstract

Techniques based on geographic information systems (GIS) have been widely adopted and applied in the fields of infectious disease and environmental epidemiology; their use in chronic disease programs is relatively new. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention is collaborating with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and the University of Michigan to provide health departments with capacity to integrate GIS into daily operations, which support priorities for surveillance and prevention of chronic diseases. So far, 19 state and 7 local health departments participated in this project. On the basis of these participants’ experiences, we describe our training strategy and identify high-impact GIS skills that can be mastered and applied over a short time in support of chronic disease surveillance. We also describe the web-based resources in the Chronic Disease GIS Exchange that were produced on the basis of this training and are available to anyone interested in GIS and chronic disease (www.cdc.gov/DHDSP/maps/GISX). GIS offers diverse sets of tools that promise increased productivity for chronic disease staff of state and local health departments.

Geographical inequalities in acute myocardial infarction beyond neighbourhood-level and individual-level sociodemographic characteristics: a Danish 10-year nationwide population-based cohort study

“…Geographical variation in ischaemic heart disease, including acute myocardial infarction (AMI), exists globally and within countries 1–3. Identifying and understanding geographical patterns in disease provide important information on potential drivers of disease inequalities and disease aetiology as well as where to implement prevention strategies that target the most vulnerable populations and areas 4 5…”

Understanding the use of geographical information systems (GIS) in health informatics research: A review

“…While there are improvements that can still be made in GIS, they can still be extremely useful in the study of environmental epidemiology 10. Mapping through GIS can make substantial gains in the evaluation of environmental health risks 11.…”

Application of Geographic Information Systems to Address Chronic Disease Priorities: Experiences in State and Local Health Departments

“…Given the value of applied GIS, we invited staff members from 1 local and 3 state health departments to describe their use of GIS to address chronic disease priorities. These health departments previously participated in the Building GIS Capacity for Chronic Disease Surveillance training, which is provided through a collaboration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors, and the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) (currently at Rice University) (2). The prompts given to the health departments were:…”