GIS, mashups, & a new website for community health supporters

[Maximillian Phillips]

The Healthy Cities project just launced a new website.  "The site allows for mashups and GIS mapping of all kinds of data, including demographics, environmental conditions, availability of childcare, foster care placements, income and employment, housing conditions, crime, access to health insurance, disease rates, and availability of parks and access to heal

thy food" 

Here is the article

http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/healthy-city-new-california-...

This is the site

http://www.healthycity.org/

[Beatrice Yearwood]

ESRI.com HEALTHY GIS
There are a number of exciting happenings in GIS that should be linked to EHR work. The HIT literature is very weak on the topic of GIS mapping and EHR/PH data exchange. Imagine what it would be like for a clincian ( in the Brave New World of Donald Berwick this would be a medical assistant) working with a patient to be able to pull up a patient's neighboorhood food desert rating during a diabetes education session? There is a problem solving learning objective in the Am Diabetes Association patient education program. For some patients finding healthy fare is a problem/challenge. Being able to direct a patient to healthier places to shop/eat or an area close to home or walk is valuable information.

There is a need for public health leaders to make a stronger case for the inclusion (eventually) of neighborhood characteristics that can help a patient reach his/her goals in EHRs or in the HIE platform. Pharmacies are not that difficult to find, but a place close to home to purchase fruit or pre-cooked healthy meals can be a challenge in some neighborhoods.

The link below will take you to an article in Healthy GIS that describes community health improvement capabilities of GPS/GIS systems