An Introduction to GIS for Health and Social Sciences

Catalog description

This course is designed to give students a first exposure to understanding how GIS is integral to understanding a wide variety of public health problems. It introduces students to current spatial approaches in health research and provides a set of core skills that will allow students to apply these techniques toward their own interests. Subject matter will include chronic diseases, infectious diseases, and vectored diseases examples. Other topics related to social determinants of health and current events (e.g., violence, overdoses, disaster and homelessness) will also be incorporated. Students will be exposed to different types of data and different applications of these data (for example, hospitals, police departments), enabling them to think "outside the box" about how GIS can be utilized to solve real-world problems. Students will learn classic mapping and hotspot techniques. In addition, they will be introduced to novel ways to collect geospatial field data using online sources (Google Street View), primary data collection (spatial video) and mixed method approaches (spatial video geonarratives), all of which represent the cutting edge of spatial epidemiology. Offered as MPHP 426 and PQHS 426 .