What is today’s equivalent to Jon Snow’s Map?

The question that was raised by James Reid from JISC during the workshop I was leading at the open geo health event. I would be interested to hear what the readers of this blog think? The workshop was discussing “why GIS is under-utilised in the NHS?” The term GIS in this sense is probably better replaced by location or spatially enabled technology as it encompasses the extent and breadth of contemporary desktop/web/mobile technology.

The question, “What is today’s equivalent to Jon Snow’s Map?” has resonated with me and got me thinking. To consider the answer to this question – we must first understand why the map of cholera deaths is so important: Here are my initial thoughts:

1. Example of an early GIS – on paper with different layers (pumps, deaths, location of water companies and places of interest such as brewery/ poor house/ plague burial plot).
   
   
2. Represented a paradigm shift in thinking related to cholera transmission – by providing an evidence base for the theory that Cholera is transmitted by water and is not air-borne.

Is there a modern health mapping equivalent? In the world of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and humanitarian aid for which health is a component, I would propose that the crowd-sourced mapping of Hati has had considerable impact with a group of volunteers creating geographic data by tracing up-to-date satellite imagery and using the resulting data to develop applications for use by crisis responders.

In the field of Health, there are two other applications that come of the fore: Health Maps and EpiCollect. Health Maps began in 2006 and aggregates content from resources such as the World Health Organisation to provide real-time information on emerging infectious disease outbreaks. The recently developed EpiCollect is a mobile application tool that facilitates the collection of user content via questionnaires or surveys. Both of these initiatives are useful but whether they are the modern day equivalent of John Snow – I am not sure.

Open, Geo, Health Workshop: GIS in the NHS

I am leading a workshop at the Open, Geo Health Workshop in Edinburgh - #gecohealth. This is a JISC organised event.

I am hoping to encourage a discussion related to the future role of GIS in the health (NHS). As a researcher not only in usability I have a special interest in Health and Health inequalities.

It has long been my belief that GIS is under-utilised in the NHS. So whilst there are lots of new opportunities for Geo and Health - we need to identify what really needs to change to embed practice within the NHS. Whilst now more than ever before GIS is more affordable and more accessible with lots of useful data that can be applied to the health care setting - many barriers (social, political, technical, economical) still exist. The technical merits and low cost of Open Source Software are not enough to drive a georevolution within the NHS.

I see a number of the geospatial projects JISC have recently funded as having a future potential to aid decision-making in health. One of which is our project. Once the G3 project software is launched in October, I will develop a scenario around Geographic Concepts and health inequalities and hope that it will prove useful to health care professionals.

Open Street Map: State of the Map presentation

Just a quick note from the JISCG3 team, Kate and Myself we will be presenting our usability research on VGI editors at the the 1st European State of the Map Conference of the OpenStreetMap project held 15th-17th July 2011 in Vienna, Austria.

The talk will draw upon our previous work in evaluating the usability of the Potlatch editing environment, an online data editing interface for OpenStreetMap.

This presentation presents one of the first systematic investigations into the usability of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) editor front-ends, using established best practice in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research. The two front-ends evaluated are Potlatch 2 and Google Map Maker, to present contrasting views of the user experience of two major VGI projects. Two user groups with no prior experience of VGI contribution were instructed to enrol and contribute data to both VGI projects, and their interaction with the two services were monitored using a mobile eye tracker and video screen capture software in a computer lab environment. The resulting data was analysed to reveal how users interact and experience VGI editors, as well as highlight deficiencies and differences between Potlatch 2 and Google Map Maker. The results from this research project are a set of recommendations for the future development of these editors, specifically relating to improving the user experience and ease of use of VGI editors.

The talk will be recorded and hopefully put online after, I will link on this blog to it as soon as possible afterwards.

Hope to see you there, and looking forward to the discussions!