Using Geographic Information Systems to Match Local Health Needs with Public Health Services and Programs
Published in: American Journal of Public Health, v. 101, no. 9, Sep. 2011, p. 1664-1665
Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 2011
Read More
Access further information on this document at American Journal of Public HealthThis article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
Local health departments (LHDs) play an important role in ensuring essential public health services. Geographic information system (GIS) technology offers a promising means for LHDs to identify geographic gaps between areas of need and the reach of public health services. We examined how large LHDs could better inform planning and investments by using GIS based methodologies to align community needs and health outcomes with public health programs. We present a framework to drive LHDs in identifying and addressing gaps or mismatches in services or health outcomes.
This article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.
Our mission to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis is enabled through our core values of quality and objectivity and our unwavering commitment to the highest level of integrity and ethical behavior. To help ensure our research and analysis are rigorous, objective, and nonpartisan, we subject our research publications to a robust and exacting quality-assurance process; avoid both the appearance and reality of financial and other conflicts of interest through staff training, project screening, and a policy of mandatory disclosure; and pursue transparency in our research engagements through our commitment to the open publication of our research findings and recommendations, disclosure of the source of funding of published research, and policies to ensure intellectual independence. For more information, visit www.rand.org/about/research-integrity.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.