GIS for Public Health: Books

"[This book] treats disease transmission areas for what they are—distributions of species. The book argues that complex, fragmented, and highly irregular disease patterns can only be understood when underlying environmental drivers are considered. The result is an elegant modeling approach that challenges static spatial models and provides a framework for recasting disease mapping. Anyone working in the area of disease transmission, particularly those employing predictive maps, will find [this] book both inspiring and indispensable." -From the publisher.

"[This book] develops strategies that support the implementation of recommended actions to improve national physical activity surveillance. This report also examines and builds upon existing recommended actions." - From the publisher.

"Health Informatics and Medical Systems is an important area that is at the intersection of information science, computer science, social science, behavioral science and health care. This field is mainly concerned with the resources, devices, and methods required to optimize the acquisition, storage, retrieval, processing and use of information in health and biomedicine. Health informatics is driven by computers, information and communication systems. It is a multi-disciplinary field that covers a wide spectrum of sub-fields. It combines the problem solving skills of computer scientists with health care professionals and health care givers." -From the publisher.

"The text focuses on new methods for inferring meaning from both the quantitative information that characterizes communities and the words community members use to describe their lives. It pays particular attention to data collection and analysis and clearly demonstrates the intricacies of using spatial, systems, and modeling analysis for community health. The first section on inferring meaning from numbers includes spatial analysis, agent-based models, community network analysis, and realist reviews. The second section, about inferring meaning from words, addresses system dynamics, concept mapping, visual voices, and media analysis. Chapters describe, step by step, how to apply new methodologies to pressing health issues and provide Web links to interactive mapping and videos of agent-based models. Additionally, the authors provide examples from their research to support methodological points." - From the publisher.

"Assessing and addressing the risks of chemical hazards requires a sound knowledge of toxicology, environmental epidemiology, environmental science, health risk assessment, and public health principles. [This book] provides practical guidance on the technical aspects of environmental and public health investigations. Written by leaders in the field, the authors provide practical, expert advice on a range of topics from key concepts and framework for investigation to contaminated land and waste management. Case studies are used to aid learning and understand of the topics discussed. Produced by Public Health England, this resource offers a comprehensive and structured approach to understanding environmental public health issues." -From the publisher.

"[This book] addresses both the challenges and cooperative solutions of contemporary public health, all within a framework of social justice, environmental sustainability, and global cooperation. With an emphasis upon ecological foundations, this resource approaches public health principles-history, foundations, topics, and applications-with a community-first perspective. By achieving global reach through cooperative, local interventions, this resource illustrates that through the practice of public health we can also maintain the health of our world." - From the publisher.

"Looking at health and health care in a new way, this book examines health risks and benefits as encountered 'on the move' rather than focusing on the risks and benefits incurred at fixed locations. The provision and utilization of health care is also investigated, as produced/delivered and consumed/accessed in mobile settings. Engaging with the contemporary concern with 'mobilities' this book covers many forms of movement and flow, including movements of people, disease, information and health care. ... Drawing on three main disciplines, geography, sociology, and epidemiology, author Tony Gatrell makes strong connections between these areas of inquiry, drawing on (for example) social theorising, geographical concepts, and epidemiological methods and data. The book will be of interest to the growing number of geographers working on the geography of health, along with social scientists involved in the mobilities 'turn'. More broadly, as issues of global public health that invariably involve the movements of people, goods, viruses and information continue to hit the headlines, the book is both timely and of policy relevance." - From the publisher.

"This book provides an overview of the use of spatial statistics in epidemiology — the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases. Used appropriately, spatial analytical methods in conjunction with GIS and remotely sensed data can provide significant insights into the biological patterns and processes that underlie disease transmission. In turn, these can be used to understand and predict disease prevalence. This book brings together the specialised and widely-dispersed literature on spatial analysis to make these methodological tools accessible to epidemiologists for the first time. With its focus on application rather than theory, this book includes examples taken from both medical (human) and veterinary (animal) disciplines, and describes both infectious diseases and non-infectious conditions. It also provides worked examples of methodologies using a single data set from the same disease example throughout, and is structured to follow the logical sequence of description of spatial data, visualisation, exploration, modelling, and decision support." - From the publisher.

"To date, the public health benefits of geographical information systems and mapping technologies have been most extensively utilized during large health campaigns and international responses to public health emergencies, including those caused by outbreaks and natural disasters. The challenge now is to extend these benefits more broadly to health systems in developing countries in ways that make the multiple powers of these technologies an integral part of routine surveillance and planning activities, particularly at the district level. WHO has developed a programme of work for doing so, and this is being pursued in collaborations with a large number of international partners." - From the publication (pg.55).

"Health care executives and managers will get a closer look at how to use geographic information systems (GIS) to improve patient care, better manage their facilities, and increase their market share with this book. GIS is already used to monitor the spread of disease, assign patients to the nearest facility, and display injuries on a map of the human body. This book uses a dozen case studies, ranging from federal institutions and state public health departments to private care providers, to explain how the program was implemented and to report the results. With GIS, health care workers will be able to access accurate information quickly and easily through an easy-to-understand visual medium." - From the publisher.

"[This book] includes contributions from the leading researchers in the field who participated in the First European Conference on Geographic Information Sciences and Public Health, which promoted the use of GIS within the realm of Public Health. [This book] is the first book to treat GIS as more than a technology in the public health field. It recognizes GIS in public health as a science that encompasses the development and application of scientific methods toward solving societal problems, an emerging facet of public health research and practice. This compilation is beneficial to all practitioners and researchers with an interest in public health." - from the back cover.

“[This book] is a comprehensive survey of the technology of mapping and its relationship to the battle against disease. This look at medical mapping advances the argument that maps are not merely representations of spatial realities but a way of thinking about relationships between viral and bacterial communities, human hosts, and the environments in which diseases flourish.” –from the publisher.

"This book provides an overview of the use of spatial statistics in epidemiology — the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases. Used appropriately, spatial analytical methods in conjunction with GIS and remotely sensed data can provide significant insights into the biological patterns and processes that underlie disease transmission. In turn, these can be used to understand and predict disease prevalence. This book brings together the specialised and widely-dispersed literature on spatial analysis to make these methodological tools accessible to epidemiologists for the first time. With its focus on application rather than theory, this book includes examples taken from both medical (human) and veterinary (animal) disciplines, and describes both infectious diseases and non-infectious conditions. It also provides worked examples of methodologies using a single data set from the same disease example throughout, and is structured to follow the logical sequence of description of spatial data, visualisation, exploration, modelling, and decision support." - From the publisher.

"Presents the state-of-the-art of using GIS and other geospatial methods for environmental health research
Contains completely new and original material on geotechnical applications in health research. Contributors are leading researchers and practitioners who published widely on the subject. Includes case studies and is supported by about a hundred illustrations" - From the publisher.

"[This book is] an authoritative collection of over 80 full colour maps showing geographic patterns of common environmental exposures and diseases of public health importance." - From the publisher.

"[This book is] an informative and practical reference guide for health researchers, service providers, and policy makers, as it offers a broad, multidisciplinary understanding of the health of diverse populations who inhabit the polar regions of the northern hemisphere. The atlas includes overviews of the physical environment that influences human health; cultures and languages of northern peoples; different diseases and health conditions; and health systems, policies, resources, and services. It concludes with information on how education and research can be used to improve health in these regions." - From the publisher.

"[This book contains] almost two hundred pages of original demographic and health-related maps that display county-by-county and regional information covering everything from the distribution of pharmacies, trauma centers, and emergency rooms to the number of lung, colon, and breast cancer patients in major metropolitan areas (by ZIP code) [and is] an indispensable tool for healthcare providers and planners, risk managers, public officials and policymakers, public health workers, and university researchers and students. " - From the publisher.

"This volume examines important aspects of China's century-long search to provide appropriate and effective health care for its people. Four subjects—disease and healing, encounters and accommodations, institutions and professions, and people's health—organize discussions across case studies of schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, mental health, and tobacco and health. Among the book's significant conclusions are the importance of barefoot doctors in disseminating western medicine, the improvements in medical health and services during the long Sino-Japanese war, and the important role of the Chinese consumer. Intended for an audience of health practitioners, historians, and others interested in the history of medicine and health in China, the book is one of three commissioned by the China Medical Board to mark its centennial in 2014." - From the publisher.

Snow’s study of a cholera outbreak is regarded as the foundation of epidemiology through the refutation of the miasma theory of disease transmission, and as the antecedent of spatial statistics and modern GIS. This is the second edition of Snow’s work and contains his famous “Cholera Map.”

"An account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London--and an exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease in cities. In the summer of 1854, a devastating cholera outbreak seized London just as it was emerging as a modern city: more than 2 million people packed into a ten-mile circumference, a hub of travel and commerce, continually pushing the limits of infrastructure that's outdated as soon as it's updated. Author Johnson chronicles Snow's day-by-day efforts as he risked his own life to prove how the epidemic was being spread. When he created the map that traced the pattern of outbreak back to its source, Dr. Snow didn't just solve a pressing medical riddle--he established a precedent for the way modern city-dwellers, city planners, physicians, and public officials think about the spread of disease and the development of the modern urban environment." - From the publisher.