Frequently asked questions about the HealthMapper

- Why the HealthMapper?
- What are the ideas behind the HealthMapper?
- Who are the intended users of the HealthMapper?
- What are the components and functions of the HealthMapper?
- Is the Healthmapper compatible with other GIS?
- For which countries has the core geographic data being developed?
- Can existing datasets be automatically downloaded into the HealthMapper?
- What's new in HealthMapper 4.3?

Why the HealthMapper?

The past five years have seen a significant expansion in geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping technology with for example, the introduction of desktop GIS and mapping software and hand-held global positioning systems technology. Many public health administrators now recognize that these technologies can help them better access information quickly and efficiently and better assess and analyse spatial relationships important in the implementation of public health programmes.

However even when public health administrators recognize the benefits of mapping technologies, several obstacles still remain:

• public health databases are often in incoherent formats with no standardized geo-referencing, which makes their integration into a GIS time-consuming and difficult;
• public health users typically make use of only 10 -20 % of the functions of large GIS packages;
• public health users have difficulty in accessing digital data such as boundary maps, elevation maps and information on the location of population settlements.

What are the ideas behind the HealthMapper?

The HealthMapper has been developed to provide a solution to some of these obstacles, based on these key ideas:

• give the public health user a ready-made standardized digital database containing information considered essential by public health users including boundary maps, environmental factors (such as lakes, rivers, elevation) and vital information on basic population and basic health, school and water infrastructures;
• provide the public health user with a simple data management interface into which the user can easily enter and update public health indicators in a standard geographic format;
• provide the public health user with user-friendly icon-driven functions to automatically create maps, tables and charts of their data;
• make the system able to operate at both local and global levels;
• provide it to public health users at low or no cost.

Who are the intended users of the HealthMapper?

The HealthMapper has been designed and developed by WHO specifically for use by public health administrators working at national and district levels.

The HealthMapper simplifies the collection, storage, updating, retrieval and analysis of public health data. It simplifies the use of geographic information systems and mapping and provides a user-friendly interface to spatial analysis and data management.

What are the components and functions of the HealthMapper?

The HealthMapper comprises three components including a standardized core geographic database complete with a user-friendly data management and mapping interface.

1. Core geographic database

The most essential part of the HealthMapper is the core geographic database. This represents the collection and standardization of all known existing data of individual countries relating to the following features:

• administrative boundaries (national, sub-national);
• locations of villages (including village names and codes);
• locations/type of health infrastructure;
• location/type of school infrastructure;
• location/type of safe water points;
• population by administrative level (and down to village where available);
• roads, rivers, forests, elevation.

The geographic database is developed in collaboration with national ministries of each partner country. The database integrates several multi-sectoral datasets which are retrieved from a variety of sources in country.

The completeness of these data varies from country to country. The development of the database represents an iterative process of data collection/updating and standardization.

2. A Data Manager Application

The Data Manager has been designed and developed to support some of the most commonly used functions in data management for public health. The Data Manager is a user-friendly interface which enables users to link programme indicators to the geographic database for subsequent mapping and analysis. The data manager has 3 basic functions:

• it provides a user-friendly interface between the core geographic database to permit easy update and maintenance of key geographic data;
• it permits users to easily link their own public health indicators of interest. For example, users can enter their data against any available geographic feature such as a village, health facility, district, region, or country and continue to update and maintain their data;
• it provides an important import and export facility which allows users to automatically transfer selected indicators from one level to another.

3. A mapping interface

The mapping interface has been designed and developed to support some of the most commonly used functions in mapping and basic spatial analysis for public health. The mapping interface allows users to create visualize and analyse their data through interactive maps and graphs. The key functions of the mapping interface include:

• generate thematic maps with shaded areas, proportional symbols, dot density;
• easy to locate and select features, measure distances, zoom, pan;
• overlay additional layers such as elevation, roads, rivers, health facilities and schools;
• create buffers around selected features, such as health facilities, schools, villages, water points;
• compute specific rates, including population, number of cases within a radius of a selected point;
• create interactive graphs from the maps to assess trends over time or to compare indicators;
• create, save and retrieve a set of favourite maps.

Is the Healthmapper compatible with other GIS?

The system is based on the same mapping engine (MapObjects) used for ArcView by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Inc. The HealthMapper geographic files can therefore can be used in conjunction with other ESRI Inc. products.

Can existing datasets be automatically downloaded into the HealthMapper?

A new import function has been developed for the HealthMapper to automatically upload from and export data to other file formats.

For which countries has the core geographic data being developed?

Until 2000, the priority areas for the development of the geographic database of the HealthMapper has been Africa and South-East Asia. Consequently, the database has been well established for most countries in these regions. However, the HealthMapper can be used to enter, visualize and map data at global, regional, national and sub-national levels down to the first and second administrative level for every country.

Since 2000 a WHO's Public Health Mapping and GIS Network has been established to expand the implementation of the HealthMapper to all regions of WHO. The network comprises focal points from each WHO region and sub-region. A key objective of the network is to continue to build and expand the core geographic data.

What's new in HealthMapper 4.3?

• Easier installation process.
• Compatible with Windows Vista.
• Conversion of mdb data files from Access 97 to Access 2000.
• Unicode support for complex character sets.
• Upgrade to MapObjects 2.4.