From conducting clinical field work in Kenya to constructing new hospitals in Sweden, health professionals use GIS (geographic information systems) to visualize and analyze geographic elements in every branch of health management. Even if you've never seen a GIS, or used one, you see its effects all around you: GIS helps patients check into hospitals faster, speeds ambulances around rush-hour traffic, and shows managers where to build clinics that will serve the most people.

Health care management is a rapidly developing field, where even slight shifts in policy affect the health care we receive. In this book, you'll see how physicians, public health officials, insurance providers, hospitals, epidemiologists, researchers, and HMO executives use GIS to focus resources to meet the needs of those in their care.

GIS for Health Organizations gives detailed and compelling answers to the difficult questions health care providers ask every day: Where is the disease coming from? How will it spread? Where is the nearest hospital? What is the fastest route for the ambulance? Where should we allocate our funding? GIS for Health Organizations presents 12 case studies in which GIS is used to: