New discipline, led by Carnegie Mellon’s Kristen Kurland, tackles health problems
What does a new computer-based discipline have to do with obesity—one of today’s most significant health issues?
A great deal, as it turns out.
GIS—Geographic Information Systems—captures, displays, and analyzes data based on geographic references. Think of Google maps, and imagine being able to pile on multiple layers and types of information: location-specific data about health, crime, income, education, and more.
Then imagine being able to visualize and analyze that data in multiple ways. The result: images that convey more information—and make more powerful arguments—than words often can. With GIS, seeing is truly believing.
Kristen Kurland, a Carnegie Mellon faculty member with a joint appointment in the School of Architecture and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, is a nationally known expert on GIS, particularly as it relates to health.
CDC Using the Book
Kurland focuses on community design, its influence on public health, and how public policy can improve public health through thoughtful design decisions. With co-author Wilpen Gorr, professor of public policy and management information systems in the Heinz School, Kurland has written several books that are considered by many to be the gold standard for learning GIS—the GIS Tutorial for Health, for example, is used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Today, much of Kurland’s health work concerns obesity
The availability of healthful food is a contributing factor. One example: Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Kurland has used GIS to show how difficult it is for Hill residents to get to stores that sell healthful food; the entire neighborhood is served only by convenience stores. And, with low income levels in the area, many residents don’t own cars to get to full-service grocery stores. (That knowledge is being put to work: A student group is spearheading an effort to attract a full-service grocery store to the Hill.)
Another project to help the Hill to better health is part of an initiative led by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Kurland and her students are working with the Hill House—a hub of social services and neighborhood activity—for the exercise-oriented “Don’t Sit Still on the Hill” initiative. Using a Carnegie Mellon–developed GIS enhancement called Maphub, Hill District residents are collaborating to identify and map specific places that make exercise walking difficult. The resulting maps will be used to demonstrate exactly what changes—to sidewalks, traffic patterns, and even policing—could help make the Hill a more walkable locale.
GIS is helping to combat obesity in other ways, too. Some Pittsburgh elementary schools lack physical education facilities, so students don’t get much exercise. At the request of school district policymakers, Kurland and her students mapped elementary school locations against local green spaces, indicating walking distances. It became instantly obvious that some schools are near enough to parks that outdoor gym classes could become part of the curriculum.
“Look at This Map…”
Kurland and her team also are collaborating with Silva Arslanian, MD, director of the Weight Management and Wellness Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. The group is mapping where overweight children who receive care at the center live. Ultimately, says Kurland, “Healthcare providers will be able to say to a particular school district, ‘Look at this map: You have an extraordinary number of overweight kids who are at risk of health problems. You may want to do something about your phys ed programs and your school lunches and vending machines.”
GIS is useful for health applications far beyond obesity. Kurland, for example, has used GIS to show—dramatically—which Allegheny County neighborhoods have a high incidence of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood. She also has correlated elevated lead levels not only with the age of housing but also with neighborhood income and education levels; as education and income rise, the incidence of lead poisoning declines—perhaps because parents know more about the problem and have the resources to remediate lead paint in their homes.
The county is using the GIS images and information to convince pediatricians in the high-incidence neighborhoods to screen local children more carefully.
Among other things, Kurland has also used GIS to map the locations of all-terrain-vehicle (ATV) “tracks”—safe riding venues—and pediatric ATV injuries; areas with available tracks have lower rates of injury. And GIS has helped to identify areas of Pennsylvania where there aren’t enough mammography centers to serve women.
Both Kurland and coauthor Gorr are sought-after consultants (Kurland’s focus is health, Gorr’s is crime). But the two don’t always accept the invitations that flow in from around the country. Says Kurland, “Mostly we let our books represent us elsewhere. We’re at Carnegie Mellon, and one of our goals is to help this university help communities here.”
RELATED LINKS:
Kristen Kurland
Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture
H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management
Geographic Information Systems
Wilpen Gorr
Hill House
MapHub
