Health

Health GIS: From Data Entry to Dashboard in Real Time

GIS continues to be used in public health research and planning. The types of companies and organizations adopting Health GIS span the health care spectrum: from public health departments and public health policy and research organizations to hospitals, medical centers, and health insurance organizations.

To demonstrate our work in the field of Health GIS, Blue Raster Program Manager Phil Satlof presented at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, aka HIMSS, 2021 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Phil’s presentation, “From Data Entry to Dashboard Display- How to create real-time business intelligence using the ArcGIS Platform” took place in the Esri Demo Theater.

His presentation highlighted a number of Health GIS projects that enabled organizations to move seamlessly from data collection into immediate analysis and decision-making. Phil showed how Blue Raster was able to jump start configurable and extendable ArcGIS Platform applications in a number of applications including:

For more information on these applications and our ability to streamline data to action, Contact Us.Health GIS

HIMSS Conference 2021 

 

Spatial data and GIS technology can underscore coverage gaps in the populations we hope to reach, the opportunities to improve workflows, and the ability to plan for and mitigate against unforeseen events. Applied Health GIS leads to improved health outcomes, increased accessibility to health care, and healthier communities.

Globally, there is a renewed appreciation for the critical role that public health preparedness professionals play in keeping our communities safe. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the awareness of public health emergency response into our living rooms. Now, people better understand how the health of a community impacts the economy, transportation networks, education, community design and infrastructure. The crisis’ scope and complexity  demonstrated that public health preparedness is a vital function. It requires careful planning and coordination, with Health GIS playing a leading role.

 

Look Good, Feel Good: DHS Program Launches Re-Designed Website

DHS website header

Having access to global population and health data is critical to understanding and addressing public health issues. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) Program collects and disseminates nationally representative and accurate data on population, health, and nutrition data across more than 90 countries.

This year, Blue Raster worked with The DHS Program to re-design and launch its website. The modernized look and simplified layout make it easier than ever for users to access what they need: country-specific data, powerful tools and resources, survey reports, and more.

The DHS Program's website is also mobile-friendly, meaning you can access it anytime and anywhere on your mobile device.

A new, clean look offers a feel-good navigation.

DHS_01_Mobile

1. Explore by Country search

Search for your country of interest immediately after opening the website. Navigate to country-specific reports and statistics through this panel.

2. Featured Tool panel

DHS provides powerful tools to explore and download data. This panel gives you the chance to explore tools you may not have known about before.

DHS website

3. Tools & Resources panel

View and access the complete collection of tools and resources that help make the most use of country data. This handy panel displays all of the available items. Additionally, it allows you to sort by type in order to view featured items or sort by analysis and learning tools.

DHS website Tools

4. Publications panel

View the most recent publications or search based on a country, topic, or survey. The DHS Program is known worldwide for its rigorous collection, analysis, and publishing of their data through these reports.

DHS website blog post (1)

5. DHS Topics panel

Another way to access data and reports is through the DHS topics menu. Select topics like Malaria, Maternal Mortality, Gender, and much more.

DHS website blog post (4)
DHS_headshot

 

Sunita Kishor, Director of The DHS Program had this to say “ ….congratulations to our amazing website team for the public launch of the ‘new’ DHS website….Thank you for making us all so proud.”

Learn more about our work with The DHS Program and STATcompiler.

In addition to leveraging Esri technologies for web mapping solutions, Blue Raster leverages our in-house design team to enhance user experiences through design-driven solutions. Read about the design work we have done for ocean conservation.

Enhanced Visualization of DHIS2 Data

What is DHIS2?

DHIS2the District Health Information Software, is an open-source platform for data collection, analysis and reporting of healthy system data. Ministries of Health in over 60 countries use DHIS2 to monitor both aggregate and patient-level data. Blue Raster has had the opportunity to create enhanced visualizations of data collected and stored in DHIS2 using Power BI and ArcGIS Online.

What is enhanced visualization?

While the DHIS2 platform has inbuilt data visualization capabilities, Blue Raster found opportunities to optimize the presentation of data for decision making in the form of interactive dashboards using Power BI and geospatial analysis using ArcGIS Online. We determined that Power BI and ArcGIS Online were the right tools for the job, and we created an automated workflow to extract data directly from DHIS2 for processing and display in other tools.  

We put this workflow to use in our work on the TRACE project in Lesotho. These visualizations are helping to guide decision makers and contribute to the global fight to reach HIV epidemic control.

DHIS2 visualization

Why use those additional technologies?

Using Power BI and ArcGIS Online adds analytic value and the opportunity to customize the look and feel of DHIS2 visualizations.  

Advantages of Power BI: 

  • Additional data processing/cleaning prior to visualization 
  • Cross-filter and cross-highlight between different visualizations 
  • Drill up and down in geographic hierarchies 
  • Copy and paste specific visuals and export data from visuals 

Advantages of ArcGIS Online: 

  • Explore connections between data using customizable interactive maps 
  • Develop professional-looking web applications to visualize data using out of the box configurable tools 
  • Perform statistical and geospatial analysis using your data sets and sources from ESRI’s Living Atlas (library of curated datasets) 

How can I get started with my DHIS2 data?

Blue Raster can help you take full advantage of your DHIS2 data. Our expertise in human-centered design coupled with our technical expertise in Power BI and Esri's ArcGIS tools can help you make the best decisions at the right time using your data. Contact us today to get started.  

COVID Response Dashboard

Over the past few weeks Blue Raster has been working to assist State and Federal Government agencies in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Providing a means to present accurate, up to date data to the public is essential to the success of mitigation efforts across the country. Blue Raster has been actively working to create Esri Operations Dashboards to do exactly that.

Virginia COVID-19 Social Distancing Dashboard

With Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS Online, Blue Raster created an interactive COVID response dashboard using Johns Hopkins University’s county level COVID-19 case data and Unacast’s Social Distancing Index to present crucial data in an easy to understand and consumable format. By using this data in a map-centric dashboard format with relevant figures, it allows for decision makers to view and understand the current situation and guide informed decision making.

Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard has been used globally to track the spread of the Coronavirus outbreak since it was first recognized in early January. In the past weeks, the University has been able to release more granular county level data for the United States to improve tracking of the virus. The JHU county level data updates often with the latest case reporting from across the country.

Unacast’s Social Distancing Index, now available as a dataset in the Living Atlas and as a standalone map viewer application hosted by Esri, aggregates the average travel distance of residents in a county and their average visitation to non-essential locations. Additionally, it assigns each county in the US a letter grade to represent how well its residents are adhering to the CDC Social Distancing Guidelines.

Customizable Dashboard Template

The decision to use publicly available data allowed for the rapid turnaround of personalized dashboards for the state of Nevada and Virginia based off of the same core datasets available in the Esri Living Atlas. Key information from these datasets are then presented in an easy to understand operations dashboard to summarize the current situation of a state. This has also allowed Blue Raster to create a template based off of these dashboards. We can quickly configure and deploy this template for an organization's internal and external use. As a result, State and Local agencies can also use these dashboards as a collaboration tool to aid in decision making.

Ready to find out more?

Contact us today to get started on your own COVID response dashboard.

Esri FedGIS 2020

The Blue Raster team recently attended the 2020 Esri Federal GIS (FedGIS) Conference in Washington, DC. The conference brought together over 5,000 GIS professionals from across government agencies to share their knowledge and explore new ways of leveraging GIS in their work. Over the course of three days, Esri staff and industry specialists held presentations and workshops on best practices for location intelligence and their experiences working within the geospatial data community.

Blue Raster's work with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) was highlighted in the FedGIS plenary presentation by Jack Dangermond, and our project with the Department of Education was featured on a Map Gallery wall.

Esri FedGIS Preconference Events

Esri FedGIS

Esri FedGIS

On Monday, Blue Raster had the opportunity to participate in two Esri FedGIS preconference programs:

  • The Partner Program brought together startups, emerging businesses, the Esri Partner Network, and alliance partners to understand how to effectively work with Esri software in partnership with Esri to drive success.
  • The University Student Program included sessions, workshops, and a career fair event for students in undergraduate and graduate degree programs with interest and experience in GIS and other related fields. Our team co-presented with the Esri StoryMaps team on Storytelling using GIShelping to showcase our work with the new StoryMaps for ArcGIS and present the features that StoryMaps has to offer.
    • New this year was the Esri FedGIS Career Fair for the University students. Blue Raster hosted a table for the career fair portion of the student program, where we had the chance to meet some great students on the cutting edge of GIS technologies, and discuss some of our career opportunities.

Presentations

Our team also had the opportunity to see some of the wonderful work that others are doing in the geospatial community, as well as present some of our own work.

Blue Raster team member Christina Nordling discussed How Agencies are using StoryMaps to Share Information.

Shannon Lindsay and Phil Satlof shared their work with Integrating Microsoft Power BI and ArcGIS for the TRACE Program.

Interested In Working With Us?

Reach out to see how we can help you harness GIS technologies, mapping solutions, and data analysis to tackle the challenges you face.


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