www.skeinc.com health and gis the municipal opportunity hugh williams 416-738-9583...
TRANSCRIPT
Intro to SKE Inc.• URISA sustaining member.• Ontario govt. Vendor of Record• 14 years of growth and leadership in GIS
implementation.• Key directions:
A) “Ontario GeoPortal” and related business applications:
B) Provide hosted “spatial cloud computing” (SC2) solutions.
C) Custom application development.
• Partner with iHealthSolutions for health sector GIS requirements and applications.
Theories How Swine Flu is Being Transmitted…
Presentation Discussion:
1. Public health has many key programs that GIS can support.
2. Public health recognizes need for GIS – but many challenges exist.
3. Opportunities for municipalities to leverage / support public health.
4. New technologies / solutions available to make it easier – such as spatial cloud computing.
Health Delivery in Ontario (101)
• Public Health Units (36)– Deliver programs to keep people healthy
(healthy babies, tobacco, rabies, immunization, drinking water, STD/AIDS education, oral hygiene, many more)
– Have a municipal footprint. – Co-funded through municipalities and Ministry
of Health and Long Term Care.
• LHINs (Local Health Integration Networks) (14)– Plan and fund health care
system delivery – hospitals, CCACs, health care providers.
– Footprint does not follow municipal boundaries.
GIS Can Support.. • Population health and analysis.
(at risk, status, behaviours).• Disease monitoring / tracking /
remediation: e.g. West Nile Virus.
• Service delivery improvement: e.g. inspection routes and territory assignment.
• Healthcare access.• Information management: e.g.
timely access to information.
GIS Capacity in Public Health
• Varies ! – From little capacity to dedicated GIS.– Leads to non-standard approaches; “haves”
and “have nots”. – IT often not a spending priority when viewed
against health program delivery.– GIS not core business – although well
understood in epidemiology
• GIS Interest Group through APHEO (Assoc Public Health Epidemiologists of Ontario).
• PHAC (Public Health Agency Canada) support.
• Municipal partnerships enabling capability.
GIS Usage in Public Health
(stats from 2008 survey – 22 health units, mostly Epi’s) • 82% ESRI software.• 41% some training in GIS or spatial
analysis.; 82% have knowledge of GIS applications; 1/3 of respondents good at GIS.
• Most commonly used for a) exploring data, b) geocoding, c) buffer analysis. Other: cluster analysis; grid analysis; network analysis;
• Project use includes: vector borne surveillance e.g. West Nile (79%); cluster analysis, distance to hospital, ward profiles, population health maps.
• Over 70% feel standards lacking and needed.
Health GIS Challenges
• Data / Information– Access– Integration – Sharing / publishing.– Privacy
• Core functionality – e.g. geocoding • Cost – architecture and
implementation.• Capacity – training and dedication.• Corporate support
Municipal Opportunity• Comments from Leeds, Grenville, Lanark
Health Unit: – good relationship with municipality’s GIS
coordinator and technician– Can’t “concentrate anywhere near as much on
GIS as I would like and we can’t afford a dedicated GIS technician”.
– Potential for cost savings by sharing GIS resources
– Envision a GIS web portal (enabling sharing) maintained by an external provider.
– Data privacy a concern, but ways to overcome this.
Municipal Opportunity• Several examples of municipal GIS
support of public health: Waterloo; York; Sault Ste. Marie/Algoma; many others…
• How is your municipal GIS supporting the health unit’s role in health promotion and healthy communities?
• New technology services-based solution: Spatial Cloud Computing
Spatial Cloud Computing (SC2)
• SC2 provides information integration, publishing and access through a geographic interface.
• Service-based model that requires little or no additional technology infrastructure / data / capacity.
• Privacy concerns addressed – health data don’t leave the health unit.
• Municipal GIS data and analysis capability + SC2 would quickly provide a complete solution.
• SKE Inc. implementing SC2 through multi-award winning GeoPortal application.
