Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics
    Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics
    Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics
    Ebook225 pages2 hours

    Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics

    By Este Geraghty and Matt Artz

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Now that the health community is in a state of reflection, how do we put the lessons learned into practice?

    As we step back to examine the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic, now is the time to think about how to raise the bar for our response to the next public health emergency. Now is the time to revisit health preparedness strategies and plans. And now is the time to review what the health community did that worked—and how we can do that again.

    Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics tells real-life stories about how spatial thinking became invaluable in both local and full-scale outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Needing to answer the question of “where” sat at the forefront of everyone’s mind, and using a geographic information system (GIS) for real-time surveillance transformed possibly overwhelming data into location intelligence that provided agencies and civic leaders with valuable insights. 

    Co-edited by Esri chief medical officer Dr. Este Geraghty, this book highlights best practices, key GIS capabilities, and lessons learned during the COVID-19 response that can help communities prepare for the next crisis. GIS has empowered:

    • Organizations to use human mobility data to estimate the adherence to social distancing guidelines
    • Communities to monitor their health care systems’ capacity through spatially enabled surge tools
    • Governments to use location-allocation methods to site new resources (i.e., testing sites and augmented care sites) in ways that account for at-risk and vulnerable populations
    • Communities to use maps and spatial analysis to review case trends at local levels to support reopening of economies
    • Organizations to think spatially as they consider “back-to-the-workplace” plans that account for physical distancing and employee safety needs

    Learning from COVID-19 also includes a “next steps” section that provides ideas, strategies, tools, and actions to help jump-start your own use of GIS, either as a citizen scientist or a health professional. A collection of online resources, including additional stories, videos, new ideas and concepts, and downloadable tools and content, complements this book.

    Now is the time to use science and data to make informed decisions for our future, and this book shows us how we can do it.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEsri Press
    Release dateJun 14, 2022
    ISBN9781589487123
    Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics

    Related to Learning from COVID-19

    Titles in the series (18)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Medical For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Opinion: Covid-19 Will Be The Ultimate Stress Test For Electronic Health Record Systems

      Mar 12, 2020

      Just as the levees of New Orleans stood little chance against the wrath of Hurricane Katrina, our overly complex, inflexible, noninteroperable, and often off-purpose electronic health record systems aren't ready…

      5 min read

    • Article

      Preventing the Next Pandemic

      Mar 20, 2020

      Preventing the Next Pandemic
      7 min read

    • Article

      Covid-19 Global Tech Response

      Mar 14, 2021

      Covid-19 Global Tech Response
      3 min read

    • Article

      This Is What Happens When We Favor Individual Care Over Public Health

      Apr 10, 2020

      AS AMERICANS WATCH DIRE predictions of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States materialize around us, those who have studied this country’s health care system see the causes of the catastrophe as rooted in decades of policy decisions that prio

      3 min read

    • Article

      This Is What Happens When We Favor Individual Care Over Public Health

      Apr 10, 2020

      AS AMERICANS WATCH DIRE predictions of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States materialize around us, those who have studied this country’s health care system see the causes of the catastrophe as rooted in decades of policy decisions that prio

      3 min read

    • Article

      Insurers To Turn Fintech Players

      Aug 19, 2021

      Large-scale health catastrophes aren’t new. The world has already witnessed a series of epidemics, including SARS, MERS, Ebola and Zika. But Covid-19 is different, a pandemic that swarmed the planet at one go, leaving no place for us humans to take r

      5 min read

    • Article

      Learn From The Lessons The Pandemic Taught Us

      Jan 14, 2023

      The COVID pandemic posed an unexpected and unprecedented challenge for humanity and forcefully brought home the point that good health is central to economic well-being—for countries and for the world as a whole. Not only is it the biggest economic s

      5 min read

    • Article

      ‘Help Healthcare Systems In The Early Days Of Disease’

      Jun 1, 2020

      LARS JEPPESEN, THE CEO AND CO- Founder of Enadoc, a tech company based in Manila in the Philippines, and Wasantha Weerakoone, its CTO and Co-Founder, have always been passionate about healthcare. Although running Enadoc, which they co-founded in 2017

      5 min read

    • Article

      Fight Cancer With Data

      Apr 30, 2021

      Fight Cancer With Data
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Many Faces of The Pandemic

      Feb 3, 2022

      The COVID-19 pandemic, lasting for about two years, has undeniably presented one of the greatest protracted challenges to humanity. Now it is surging with more variants that spread even faster. It has exerted a profound impact on a world doused in tu

      4 min read

    • Article

      PANDEMIC to ENDEMIC

      Mar 1, 2022

      PANDEMIC to ENDEMIC
      12 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: Advice For HIMSS: Put Patients And Their Caregivers At The Center Of Your Universe

      Feb 11, 2019

      Improving clinicians' workflows is a great goal. But HIMSS and heath IT folks also need to harness information so patients can take better care of themselves.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Sharing And Caring

      Jul 26, 2022

      Sharing And Caring
      2 min read

    • Article

      Recognizing China’s Power Of Resilience

      Mar 19, 2020

      It’s been a tough time for China since the novel coronavirus outbreak. How do you view the ongoing fight against the virus in China? Shamshad Akhtar: China is a great nation and its outstanding economic and social achievements are well recognized glo

      5 min read

    • Article

      Transforming Healthcare

      Mar 8, 2022

      Technology has disrupted nearly every industry, but one sector that has lagged behind is healthcare. Despite the transformation of everything from how we travel and communicate to the way we order groceries and perform banking tasks, healthcare has b

      3 min read

    • Article

      Emerging Technologies

      Aug 2, 2021

      Emerging Technologies
      3 min read

    • Article

      Seizing Opportunities: Lessons from Digital Health

      May 1, 2021

      IF NOTHING ELSE, the past year has shown us that when faced with adversity, Canadians rise to the challenge. This continues to be most evident in our healthcare ecosystem, where governments, healthcare professionals, first responders, and industry le

      6 min read

    • Article

      Disrupters

      Apr 30, 2021

      Disrupters
      13 min read

    • Article

      Disrupters

      Apr 30, 2021

      Disrupters
      13 min read

    • Article

      Still Flattening The Curve?: Increased Risk Of Digital Authoritarianism After COVID-19

      Mar 30, 2022

      In the face of state surveillance, control, and censorship, we need a solid plan to reclaim our digital rights and develop proper political and legal regulations to protect them.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: Telemedicine Can Blunt The Cost Of Unnecessary Emergency Visits For Covid-19

      Mar 19, 2020

      During the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, unnecessary emergency visits cost upward of $1.5 billion. Greater use of telemedicine could substantially lower that as we deal with #Covid19.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Quick Tips: All Together Now

      Dec 1, 2021

      Ursula Myles, GM of Takeda: “An important lesson learnt internally was to stay connected, to pivot to become more digital savvy, have  information available, and keep all lines of communication open. Embracing digital platforms and various ways of co

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Learning from COVID-19

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Learning from COVID-19 - Este Geraghty

      Cover of Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics, part of the Applying GIS series. Edited by Este Geraghty, MD and Matt Artz.Title page of Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics, part of the Applying GIS series. Edited by Este Geraghty, MD and Matt Artz. Published by Esri Press in Redlands, California.

      Esri Press, 380 New York Street, Redlands, California 92373-8100

      Copyright © 2022 Esri

      All rights reserved.

      e-ISBN: 9781589487123

      The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows: 2022938227

      The information contained in this document is the exclusive property of Esri or its licensors. This work is protected under United States copyright law and other international copyright treaties and conventions. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as expressly permitted in writing by Esri. All requests should be sent to Attention: Director, Contracts and Legal Department, Esri, 380 New York Street, Redlands, California 92373-8100, USA.

      The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

      US Government Restricted/Limited Rights: Any software, documentation, and/or data delivered hereunder is subject to the terms of the License Agreement. The commercial license rights in the License Agreement strictly govern Licensee’s use, reproduction, or disclosure of the software, data, and documentation. In no event shall the US Government acquire greater than RESTRICTED/LIMITED RIGHTS. At a minimum, use, duplication, or disclosure by the US Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in FAR §52.227-14 Alternates I, II, and III (DEC 2007); FAR §52.227-19(b) (DEC 2007) and/or FAR §12.211/12.212 (Commercial Technical Data/Computer Software); and DFARS §252.227-7015 (DEC 2011) (Technical Data – Commercial Items) and/or DFARS §227.7202 (Commercial Computer Software and Commercial Computer Software Documentation), as applicable. Contractor/Manufacturer is Esri, 380 New York Street, Redlands, California 92373-8100, USA.

      Esri products or services referenced in this publication are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. To learn more about Esri marks, go to: links.esri.com/EsriProductNamingGuide. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.

      For purchasing and distribution options (both domestic and international), please visit esripress.esri.com.

      On the cover: Photograph of the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard by Moinzon.

      179369

      Contents

      Introduction ix

      How to use this book xvii

      Part 1: Situational awareness 1

      Global dashboard keeps tabs on the virus 5

      Johns Hopkins University

      Supporting state dashboards to better monitor cases and capacity 10

      US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

      It’s in the wastewater: Sensing and mapping COVID-19 14

      University of California San Diego

      A new tool for contact tracing 20

      Esri

      GIS-based contact tracing initiative sets US precedent 24

      Cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, York, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

      Part 2: Equitable resource allocation 31

      Analyzing racial inequities during COVID-19 35

      Esri

      Spatial approaches to determining accessibility 41

      Esri

      GIS helps achieve equitable, speedy vaccine distribution 47

      Esri

      Applying location intelligence to vaccine distribution 57

      City of Bethlehem Health Bureau, Pennsylvania; Kansas Department of Health and Environment; and Lewis and Clark Public Health, Montana

      Dashboards mark progress of rapid vaccinations 63

      Chilean National System for the Coordination of Territorial Information

      Using GIS to reach homebound residents for COVID-19 vaccination 68

      Oregon Public Health Department

      Part 3: Capacity and infrastructure 73

      Models and maps explore COVID-19 surges and capacity 76

      Penn Medicine’s Predictive Healthcare Team

      Using maps and models to create surge hospital capacity 82

      US Army Corps of Engineers

      Solving medical supply chain problems 89

      Direct Relief

      Part 4: Communication and engagement 93

      Communication hub sites share COVID-19 news, resources 96

      Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Maryland Department of Information Technology; University of South Florida; and Delaware County, Indiana

      Equitable community engagement during COVID-19 101

      Esri

      GIS hub helps keep residents informed and safe 107

      Cobb County, Georgia

      Location intelligence helps boost census response rates 113

      US Census Bureau

      Part 5: Recovery and resilience 121

      Five spatial approaches to safely reopening 125

      Esri

      Evaluating readiness for relaxing stay-at-home measures 133

      Esri

      Assessing economic fallout with shared maps 140

      Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, and Delaware Counties, and the city and county of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

      Balancing response and recovery 144

      Esri

      How to reopen the workplace during COVID-19 148

      Esri

      COVID-19: Our lessons learned 155

      Next Steps 161

      Conclusion 181

      Contributors 185

      Introduction

      Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed appreciation for the role that public health preparedness plays in keeping our communities safe. The hard lessons of the ongoing pandemic helped citizens better understand how the health of a community impacts all aspects of society. Beyond its tragic human toll, the pandemic has affected everything from the economy, transportation, and education to community design, infrastructure, and technology. Disparities in mortality rates and access to health care also emerged on the basis of race, ethnicity, and income. The scope and complexity of the crisis demonstrated that public health preparedness is a vital function. It requires careful planning and coordination across health organizations and beyond these to other members of our world ecosystem.

      The global health community is in a state of reflection. As it steps back to examine the worldwide response to the pandemic, the health community can’t help but be motivated to revisit health preparedness strategies and plans. Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics reviews the emerging lessons from the pandemic, including ways to improve our preparedness for the next health crisis.

      The global response to COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, highlighted the need for health organizations to engage with a wider range of collaborators. It has elevated the value of situational dashboards for communicating health issues and supporting decision-making. The pandemic magnified the importance of having the right datasets and applications to support business continuity and the recovery of our communities. Looking forward from these lessons, we value the need for equity as we build resilience at individual, organizational, and societal levels.

      Organizations that prepare for and respond to public health emergencies should formally and intentionally exploit every incident as a learning experience. Many already do. Each event presents unique challenges and requires specific responses; they don’t occur in isolation. These events tend to follow repeatable patterns that organizations can anticipate and employ to create healthier communities.

      We have a transformational opportunity, given the magnitude of this crisis and common challenges, to build on lessons learned in response to previous public health emergencies, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak from 2002 to 2004, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, and the Zika virus epidemic from 2015 to 2016. These past emergencies produced foundational datasets, tools, models, and information products to use and share. Instead of starting from scratch, the health community can adapt and advance existing plans in the context of COVID-19 for a new crisis.

      A geographic information system (GIS) is often the foundation of these efforts, turning data into location intelligence that provides agencies and civic leaders with valuable insights. More than simply mapping phenomena, GIS uses geography to furnish context for events in a common reference system. Applying spatial analysis tools, GIS brings out relationships, patterns, and associations that are often hidden by the breadth and complexity of managing multiple data inputs. What makes GIS so critical is that it supports evidence-based decision-making.

      This book highlights best practices, key GIS capabilities, and lessons learned during the COVID-19 response that can help health care organizations, responders, public health programs, educators, and communities prepare for the next crisis.

      Lessons from other crises

      Humans are a resilient and adaptive species. Faced with armed conflicts, humanitarian tragedies, natural disasters, and health emergencies, we learn to look at situations in new ways and respond with innovation. The health community experienced this during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced health professionals worldwide to review, rethink, and reimagine their health preparedness workflows. That spirit of invention often aligns closely with advances in technologies.

      Case in point: any disease transferred to humans from other species, such as mosquito-borne malaria or West Nile virus, is a recurring worldwide threat. Early response efforts to these diseases incorporated hand-drawn maps to plan pesticide applications and paper- and PDF-based maps to visualize cases of human disease. But the past decade has seen a dramatic shift in response methods.

      The 2015–2016 Zika epidemic brought a transition to fully integrated workflows that include surveillance, managing public requests, planning pesticide applications, and using interactive maps for public outreach and communication. Fully digital and interoperable systems helped to streamline data collection, process management, and accountability.

      The lessons we’re learning from applying GIS to the pandemic have implications for the way we address other human crises, even beyond the scope of this book. The ongoing opioid epidemic, for example, has driven innovation to address the vast range of organizational stakeholders, including not only physicians, pharmacists, and other public health professionals but also social services, public safety agencies, coroners and medical examiners, policymakers, and educators. Solutions have required a cross-sectoral and collaborative approach.

      Collaborators in impacted communities have used GIS to share key data points and align jurisdictional activities around local initiatives. They also found ways to destigmatize opioid addiction in the public eye and connect residents with relevant information. For example, we saw broad participation in crowdsourcing stories of people lost to opioid overdoses as told by their loved ones. This was a new way to awaken people to the enormous toll of opioid addiction. Stories draw people in and promote empathy in ways that data, statistics, and charts never will.

      Similarly, in the conversation around homelessness, several jurisdictions have declared states of emergency in response to this evolving crisis. That declaration is a useful political and administrative tool to raise public awareness, reallocate resources, and remove barriers to action. GIS has played an instrumental role in supporting the organizations breaking down those barriers. Communities rely on GIS to automate the collection and reporting of needed data, speed analysis and funding for mitigation efforts, and aid in the development of evidence- and consensus-based policies.

      GIS has a long history when it comes to infectious disease outbreak response, from the plague, yellow fever, and cholera to polio, Ebola, and COVID-19. Addressing local outbreaks and a full-scale pandemic required a new paradigm of spatial thinking to facilitate decision-making, response, and recovery actions. For the first time, the health community used map-based dashboards at local and global scales to address a pandemic in near real time. The innovative use of GIS supported many strategies and programs in response to COVID-19:

      Organizations used human mobility data to estimate adherence to social distancing guidelines.

      Communities monitored the capacity of their health care systems through spatially enabled surge tools.

      Governments used location-allocation methods to distribute new resources such as testing sites and augmented care sites to locations that account for at-risk and vulnerable populations.

      Communities made information available to their residents with easy-to-use resource locators.

      Communities used maps and spatial analysis to review local case trends for guidance on easing restrictions and reopening their economies.

      Organizations used spatial thinking as they considered back-to-workplace plans that accounted for physical distancing and employee safety needs.

      Innovation happens every day in the field of health, but now it’s happening at lightning speed. Agencies must raise the standard for preparedness, response, and recovery plans because the next global crisis is just around the corner or has already arrived. For example, the outbreak of war in Ukraine in early 2022 caused a humanitarian and political crisis that threatened to engulf the world. Crises like this one, which has displaced millions of people, destroyed cities, and harmed the environment—all in the midst of a pandemic—are often interrelated and complex. GIS may be the best framework for unraveling that complexity and holistically developing the understanding that precedes informed actions and a sustained global response.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1