Health is a major concern of people the world over. Solving many of the world's most difficult health problems will require the use of GIS. Increasingly, GIS has become an important component to successful medical research as well as for combating disease outbreaks, identification of harmful environmental factors, locating clinics, and determining the geospatial characteristics and patterns of epidemics and other environmental health hazards. Viewing layers of complex environmental health information using GIS can be invaluable in addressing some of the pressing health problems of the world. GIS also offers health practitioners and researchers the technology to share information in order to create a more complete picture of population health to aid in prevention efforts and health care delivery patterns. Examples of this are HealthMapper of the United Nations' World Health Organization, SigEpi of the Pan American Health Organization, and EpiMap of the United States Center for Disease Control.

With many countries struggling with the cost of health care systems, using GIS to help address issues of accessibility, quality, and affordability are strategic. For example, in the United States, governmental and private health organizations through the eHealth Initiative have endorsed the adoption of geographic standards in every health care transaction.

Harmful environmental factors, human accidents, and new disease outbreaks are an unfortunate part of life. However, GIS technology—sometimes in conjunction with complementary fields such as spatial statistics—provides the platform on which intelligent choices can be made. GIS is playing an increasingly important role in helping the world's health leadership make the promise of "healthy people everywhere" a reality.

For more information, visit www.esri.com/health.