Understanding the impacts of “place” leads to better health and strengthens public health preparedness

Situational awareness is critical to providing accurate and timely information to the public. Regardless of the type of health crisis or the need for human support and services, stakeholders need a picture of what and where events are taking place and where/what the needs are. Clear communication and effective collaboration are key to a successful outreach, Every health crisis requires support from a wide variety of disciplines, including public safety, human services, and health care. Those stakeholders need a common operational picture of what is happening and where so that they can communicate and collaborate effectively.

The Coleman Group supports a range of GIS-facilitated communication and collaboration efforts.

Empowering health professionals by providing accurate data and science-based analysis can lead to better public awareness and decision-making. Communicating accurate health information is enhanced by identifying the primary audience, their geographic location, their geosocial influences, and their area-specific health needs. This location “place” based approach leads to accurately identifying the public’s health needs by removing the ambiguity of words and replacing it with a clear picture.

“Empowering health professionals by providing accurate data and science-based analysis can lead to better public awareness and decision making.”

Understanding the impacts of “place” leads to better health and strengthens public health preparedness. We can help achieve this goal by providing location-based accurate information via customized web mapping applications. Furthermore, online real-time/near real-time data analyses to further increase and enhance accurate information delivery.

Geographic information systems (GIS) answer the question of where: where diseases are prevalent; where vulnerable populations live; and where resources are most needed to improve health conditions. GIS is helping public, private, and non-profit organizations make effective and efficient decisions, from collecting data to analyzing it to presenting it in a user-friendly manner.

In the past 2 years alone, health professionals, and government agencies have used GIS capabilities to address the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid epidemic, vaping-related respiratory illness, and other diseases and injuries

The Coleman Group’s Actionable Data Projects:

International Database (IDB) Populations Mapping
The U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey (COVID-19) Data Tool
Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE): https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/sahie/#/
Small Area Poverty and Income Estimates (SAIPE): https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/saipe/#/?map_geoSelector=aa_c
Pandemics and Behavior Change
Vaccine Hesitancy Research

Maps and apps enable public health officials and stakeholders to coordinate efforts with other agencies and external stakeholders. Technologies such as GIS provide communication and engagement hubs for everyone, public or private.