Below are some current and previously funded and unfunded research activities with LLUHGIS’s involvement.
LLUGIS is actively involved in research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems using geospatial technology. LLUGIS also actively supports faculty that are engaged in funded academic research projects that use geospatial technology.
LLUHGIS Research Activities
Center for Public Health Preparedness
Funded by ASPH/CDC to use Geographic information system (GIS) to: 1) develop mobile GIS mapping application for public health emergency evaluations; and 2) develop a GIS training module for enhancing public health emergency preparedness and response, which would focus on rigorous, practical training around the application.
National Children Study - San Bernardino
Funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), and led by Dr. Brian Oshiro (LLUMC) and Dr. Jayakaran Job (SPH), LLU researchers are utilizing GIS to plan and analyze 1,000 children from conception to age 21 in San Bernardino County. http://www.llu.edu/public-health/news/news-national-childrens-study.page
Health Effects of Residential Proximity to Busy Railyards in San Bernardino
Funded by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), a team of SPH faculty researchers and community members collect data on the health status of several thousand people living closest to the BNSF San Bernardino rail yard. The use of geospatial tools is a crucial integral component of this project.
Improving Health and Nutrition of Vulnerable Women and Children Under 5 in Sudan GIS
Funded by USAID through ADRA, this multi-year project develop an integrated geographic information system to support Food Insecurity project in Southern Sudan to improve the health and nutrition of vulnerable women and children.
GIS & the ASHMOG Study
Air Pollutant Study GIS calculator was developed for the EPA project to study the relationship between cardiovascular health effects of long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants in a cohort of the ASHMOG study through spatial considerations.
Turtle Awareness and Protection Studies (TAPS), Bay Islands, Honduras
SST project led by Dr. Steve Dunbar in the increase awareness and understanding of juvenile hawksbill and green sea turtles in Honduras by tagging and mapping their locations as they move through the water column and across the sea surface. http://www.llu.edu/llu/grad/natsci/dunbar/
Paraguay Geomedicine Project
Dr. Kevin Knick of SST Earth and Biological Sciences research in medical geology http://www.llu.edu/llu/grad/natsci/nick/
Fossil Trackways in the Permian Coconino Sandstone, Northern Arizona
SST project led by Dr. Leonard Brand to study abundant fossil turtles, and their relationship to other vertebrate fossils and the associated sediments http://resweb.llu.edu/lbrand/research-bridger.html
Indigent Psychiatric need in California
using spatial estimation techniques to estimate the proportion of severe mental illness among households at less than 200% poverty level compared to all households http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11414-007-9103-1
LLU Regional Academic Center (RAC)
GIS was used to determine the distribution of registered environmental health specialists per 100 square miles as a way of linking environmental services to needy populations.
Organ Transplantation in California
A study to determine the geographic variation and factors related to access to kidney transplantation in California http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/health01/papers/hc01_p04a/hc01_p04a.html
Space-temporal trends of influenza like illness, Japan, in 1999-2009
GIS was used to analyze >11.1 million cases of influenza like illness (ILI) in Japan from 1999 to 2009 based on national surveillance data. http://www.ij-healthgeographics.com/content/11/1/20
Publications
- Novel measurement of spreading pattern of influenza epidemic by using weighted standard distance method: retrospective spatia...
- Spatial Relations Between Tobacco Pipe Use and Infant Mortality in Cambodia
- Medicare P4P Demonstration Project in Heart Failure: Is it Pay for Performance or Pay for Punishment?
- A spatial needs assessment of indigent acute psychiatric discharges in California
- ZIP Codes or Street Addresses? Comparing Ambient Ozone Exposures for Alternative Spatial Resolutions of Cohort Subjects
- Extending Disease Surveillance with GIS