About the GIS Lab

The Loma Linda University Health Geoinformatics (LLUHGIS) Laboratory is a modern education/training and research facility fully equipped with professional Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and remote sensing technologies.​

The LLUHGIS lab is located in the Centennial Complex on the Loma Linda Campus. The lab provides students, faculty, and staff easy access to the extensive geo-technology resources available to all Loma Linda University Health schools and departments. The lab is integrated with the LLUH backbone/servers and benefit from 24/6 technical support personnel.

The spacious facility is equipped with two computer lab rooms, each with twenty seats in rooms 3110 (east lab) and 3102 (west GIS lab) separated by a support room, 3104. There is no contiguity to utilize the two labs as a 40-seat lab. The computer workstations are supported by peripherals such as a plotter, GPS devices, printers, and others.  Rooms 3102 and 3110 can be accessed with an LLU’s badge by authorized individuals; lab 3104 is reserved for GIS lab personnel only.

The lab manages the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) GIS software site license and maintains, database management systems and other spatial analytic and visualization software packages. The lab also stores and manages a significant amount of spatial data, including demographic, population, environmental, satellite images, and aerial photographs. The 40 computers in the lab are a radical improvement over what we have been using for the past years.  One significant change that is particularly exciting is the capability of a gigabit networking between the desktop computers and our data servers.

Services

Loma Linda University GIS students

Services

By applying geotechnology principles to health practices, LLUGIS has brought an unprecedented level of scientific exploration to public health policy decision-making. Following are some of the GIS professional service applications LLUGIS has been or currently involved.
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Research

A deeper understanding of the associations of health-relevant behaviors in their full geographic environment can provide valuable insights to possible mechanisms and factors that can have altering effects, as well as enhance clinical practice and quality of care. As a result, LLUGIS has established a research agenda to expand the current understanding of how the environmental and socio-cultural context of a community interacts with individual behaviors and health outcomes.
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computer lab

Academics

Over the past several years, course offerings in health geoinformatics have proven to be an important factor in students’ education. Therefore, it is imperative that we continue to innovate through our curriculum to provide students with cutting-edge GIS technology to enable them to become competitive in the job market and more efficient industry leaders. Thus, the goal is to ensure that every School of Public Health student is exposed to GIS capabilities.
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LLUHGIS Lab Director

Seth Wiafe BSPH, MPH, PhD

Assistant Professor

Seth Wiafe is an Assistant Professor at Loma Linda University, CA. Wiafe is an experienced public health professional with background and training in international and domestic programs in health geoinformatics. Wiafe is currently involved with Ghana Breast Health Study, which aims to determine reasons for increasing rates of breast cancer in Ghana. Wiafe has also participated with the San Bernardino Rail yard study as a co-investigator, investigating the health effects of residential proximity to busy rail yards in San Bernardino.

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LLUHGIS Lab Assistant

Lance Pompe PhD (c)

Lance Pompe is currently a PhD student in Earth Science in the Department of Earth and Biological Sciences, School of Medicine. His primary research interest is in leveraging GIS to solve spatial problems in Geology and Public Health. Lance also works as a GIS analyst and instructs some of the Health Geoinformatics courses at the School of Public Health. In addition, Lance is involved in a number of GIS projects including LLUH Parking Finder web application, LLU Water Utilities Management, and Global Health Facilities Database Initiative.

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Lance Pompe

LLUHGIS Lab Assistant

James A. Martinez Ed.D, MPH

James Martinez teaches part-time at Loma Linda University School of Public Health. He assists with courses in database design, cartography and GIS applications in public health practice. He is also a program manager of research and assessment with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. James also works on a community lead partnership with local government on developing a countywide health improvement framework, and asset mapping applications to promote networks of healthy communities and real-time community health management platforms for hospital emergency department visits and solutions for preventing readmissions.

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James A. Martinez