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Back to SAG Winners 2004
Rhode Island Department of Health, HEALTHgis
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Project Goal
The Program
At the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH), the Office of Statistics (OHS) houses the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program (HEALTHgis), and is an internal organization under the Center for Health Information and Communications (CHIC). HEALTHgis produces and stores geographically based public health and emergency management information that needs to be accessible to a very diverse internal and external audience ranging from health care workers, concerned citizens, university researchers, other state agencies, and emergency management services. This audience has an understandable wide range of technical capabilities and an assorted set of information needs.
Learn more about us
Learn more about our application
Business Problem Solved
Business Problem Resolve
In 2001, HEALTH established a GIS program that centralizes, expands, and maintains the GIS capabilities throughout our public health surveillance and program activities. GIS supports the geographic organization, analysis, and the presentation of information. In the event of a public health emergency, such as a fast-spreading infectious disease or a release of air-borne radioactive material, the importance of GIS shines clear: nearly all scenarios include a geographic component of exposure, impact and response. GIS supports the disease surveillance, the emergency operations in response, and communication to other state and federal agencies, local authorities, and to the public itself.
With funding from the CDC Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Grant, HEALTH’s OHS develops and demonstrates an emergency preparedness and response capacity that builds on the underlying GIS infrastructure in HEALTH and the state.
HEALTH’s internal GIS Needs Analysis documented the most appropriate way to leverage this spatial information and to gain access in a manner that will accommodate the assorted audiences while aiding the daily decision making process in public health programs and surveillance. Several different levels of data access are anticipated for this information and all the latest security measures will be incorporated and set in place. Additionally, most programmatic data resides in a multitude of formats on multiple servers running on different platforms and relational database management systems.
Technology Implemented
Technology (Soon) Implemented
To address these issues, HEALTH will soon employ the full suite of ArcGIS technology from ESRI. The GIS system can integrate and leverage this information to the widest audience possible through interactive Intra/Internet map services, linked or “federated” relational database management systems, and the strict set of data quality assurance and quality control measures. The OHS now utilizes: ArcGIS 9, ArcIMS 9, ArcSDE 9, SQL Server 2000, and various ESRI software extensions ranging from ArcPublisher to Geostatisical Analyst to enable its Enterprise for GIS. By employing the RDBMS capabilities coupled with ArcSDE and ArcIMS several planned procedures will be developed to keep GIS layers accessible, current, and well documented.
Development Team Biography
Chief, Health Statistics
Jay Buechner, PhD manages departmental operations that collect and analyze health data on the Rhode Island population and uses that data to identify health problems among the state's population and subgroups. Buechner has worked for OHS for twenty years managing projects and technical aspects of health planning and evaluation efforts.
GIS Coordinator
Steve Sawyer has been a GIS professional for fifteen years. He has a BS from the University of Rhode Island in Soil and Water Resources with a focus in GIS. Sawyer has worked for OHS for two years planning system integrations taking an informatics approach with RDBMS connectivity and utilizing the EMC’s Storage Area Network –SAN enterprise solutions.
GIS Analyst
Marissa Silva has been working in the GIS field for four years. She has a BS from the University of Rhode Island in Environmental Science and Management with a focus in GIS. Silva has worked of OHS for two years where she manages the spatial data catalog, the creation of new data layers, and the HEALTH’s census data. Additionally, she supports the mapping and spatial analysis needs of various programs within HEALTH.
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