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Health Care Geographical Information Systems

90-834

Units: 12

Description

This course is taught with asynchronous video lectures and readings with in-person and remote office hours. A geographic information system (GIS) provides an effective way to visualize, organize and manage a wide variety of information including administrative and medical record data, environmental health, social services, and other location data. Public health departments, hospitals, and medical research agencies are using GIS to map health-related events, identify disease clusters, investigate environmental health problems, and understand the spread of disease. This course uses a unique approach for teaching GIS in health care. It involves learning how to use GIS software in the context of carrying out projects for visualizing and analyzing health-related data. Each week includes lectures and computer labs that focus on a health, technical, or policy issue which use Esri's ArcGIS Pro and Platform technologies to analyze data or solve a problem. Students learn to create Story Maps and Dashboards to convey their maps and associated text to the public and decision makers. Through assignments and projects students will not only learn how to use the software but will also learn the many distinctive advantages of using GIS for health care policy making and planning. By the end of the course, students will have sufficient background so that they can become expert users of GIS in health organizations - building, managing, and using GIS maps and health data. Prerequisites: 90-728 Introduction to Database Management, 91-802 Information Systems for Managers or permission of instructor.  

 

Learning Outcomes

  1. Develop an understanding of the world’s quickly-growing spatial location data infrastructure and how to put it to work for producing location-based health and environmental health information.
  2. Identify the relevant spatial characteristics of health application areas enabling professionals to integrate spatial thinking and GIS analysis into their health, environmental health, and related careers.
  3. Have the ability to use geospatial technologies to gain a significant advantage in the information technology field, describing the spatial relationships of topics related to health IT and geospatial analytics.

 

Prerequisites Description

90728, 91802, or 90838

Syllabus