Health departments can make major inroads by embracing GIS data, models, communication and engagement hubs, and location-centric applications.
Disease surveillance is the first line of defense in keeping communities healthy. Knowing where outbreaks happen helps identify the source.
GIS enhances response systems by helping people understand disease patterns, share information easily, and make data-driven decisions by combining and mapping different data sources.
GIS integrates and analyzes real-time data to provide a dynamic, location-based view of unfolding public health emergencies.
By revealing risks and trends, it enables decision-makers to respond and recover quickly, allocate resources efficiently, and improve coordination across agencies.
A high-impact response and recovery plan requires the right resources in the right place at the right time.
GIS can forecast surges in patient needs and optimize resource allocation, so you can deliver supplies and services where they are needed most. Mapping and analysis can expose gaps in capacity, show at-risk populations’ needs, and aid in effectively distributing supplies.
The key to using GIS effectively in health care is to build it into a public health emergency or hospital preparedness program.
Data-driven decision-making is about using authoritative data to answer fundamental questions at a moment’s notice. GIS is crucial because so many questions hinge on location data.
Every health crisis requires support from a wide variety of disciplines, including public safety, health care, human services, emergency management, and even the public. GIS supports a range of communication and collaboration efforts with tools such as dashboards, which can be shared easily.
