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Introduction:
From the past 9 years, India is working on a flagship program named “Digital India”. To digitalize all the services provided by multiple fields, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be the keystone to the success of Digitalization in India. Most important concept in GIS is conversion of complex raw data into simple information-oriented maps. GIS has become the most important tool in the field of public health, providing most critical insights into disease outbreaks and enhancing healthcare accessibility. By utilizing spatial data with health information, GIS allows health professionals and decision-makers to analyze, visualize, and act on health
challenges more effectively. This blog explores how GIS is being used to map disease outbreaks and improve health accessibility.
GIS in Mapping Disease Outbreaks
1.Tracking and Monitoring Disease Spread
During disease outbreaks, one of the most important acts that the decision-makers should do is to provide accessibility to hospitals and monitor the rate of infection spread on real-time. GIS provides real-time mapping of cases, allowing for efficient monitoring of how diseases propagate.
The spatial visualization helps the authorities to know the intensity of spread in different locations and this helps the epidemiologists to visit the locations and find out the solution for this disease spread.
2.Spatial Epidemiology
GIS allows us to find out the disease patterns and their relations to environmental and social factors. Through spatial analysis, epidemiologists can identify the causes and risk factors associated with outbreaks.
By making use of disease data with demographic, environmental, and infrastructure information, GIS reveals the connections between disease outbreaks and factors such as population density, climate conditions, water quality, and sanitation.
3.Predictive Modeling
GIS is also used to develop predictive models to forecast disease outbreaks. By analyzing historical data, environmental conditions, and human mobility patterns, GIS can predict where and when new outbreaks may occur. These models help healthcare systems prepare in advance by establishing medical teams to those locations and stocking up the required medical accessories.
GIS in Improving Health Accessibility
1.Identifying Gaps in Healthcare Access
Healthcare accessibility is a major challenge in both developed and developing countries. GIS helps identify areas with poor healthcare facilities by mapping the distribution of healthcare centers.
Spatial analysis tools like buffer can highlight regions where people do not have access to hospitals at a near distance of approximately say 5km. GIS helps us to identify those areas to establish new hospitals and to serve those areas.
2.Optimizing Health Service Delivery
GIS can improvise the delivery of healthcare services by improving the efficiency of emergency response teams, ambulance routes, and mobile health clinics.
For example, by analyzing traffic patterns and road networks, GIS can help identify the quickest routes for ambulances to reach patients.
3.Resource Allocation and Planning
GIS enables health organizations to allocate resources such as vaccines, medical supplies, and health workers more efficiently. Spatial analysis can identify regions with intense need of medicines.
GIS helps to identify the areas having more demand-supply ratio and helps to plan for establishing health campaigns to satisfy the demand. This help is effective utilization of limited supply to meet the consistent growing demand.
CASE STUDY: Identifying areas with limited access to hospitals
One notable use of GIS in identifying the areas with minimum access to the hospitals. This helps us to create more accessibility to hospitals within a particular radius. These are the locations of hospitals available in Bengaluru-urban area (data -https://data.humdata.org/dataset/hotosm_ind_health_facilities). The data downloaded will be in Geographic co-ordinate system (GCC) and to convert it into projected co-ordinate system (PCC), use projections in Geo-processing tools and Bengaluru lies in zone 43N.
Now, assuming people staying in 5km radius for each of these hospitals can reach the hospitals on time during emergency situations. Using Geo-processing tool called buffer, a radius of 5km is created to these hospitals.
5km buffer is created for each of these hospital locations. Buffer area shows the area covered by hospitals for emergency situations. There are few areas where the condition of 5km is not satisfied. To get those areas, use Symmetrical difference from geo-processing tools which provides the area which does not satisfy the condition of 5km within the Bengaluru-urban area.
The area after symmetrical difference is the area beyond 5km radius of the hospitals but some part of the buffer area outside the Bengaluru urban is a part of symmetrical difference. So, clip from geo-processing tools will clip the area to the Bengaluru urban and it removes area of symmetrical difference outside Bengaluru urban. The visibility and presentation of these areas can be managed using Symbology.
This case study shows that GIS plays an important role in identifying areas that lack the availability of nearby hospitals in an emergency.
Conclusion
GIS has revolutionized the way we approach public health, especially in mapping disease outbreaks and improving health accessibility. Its ability to visualize and analyze spatial data allows health professionals to respond more rapidly to disease outbreaks, allocate resources more effectively, and improve healthcare service delivery. As the world continues to face new public health challenges, the role of GIS in the field of healthcare is only expected to grow. By harnessing the power of GIS, we can not only manage disease outbreaks more efficiently but also ensure that health services are accessible to all.
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