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Health is wealth
Ravi Gupta
GIS Development
ravi.gupta@gisdevelopment.net
The
Ministry of Health has admitted that there is hardly any upward transmission of
information from around 24,000 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) taking place. The
Ministry is dependent entirely on newspaper reports for information and
assessment during the outbreak of diseases in many parts of the country. It has
been found that it takes nearly an year for information to travel from PHC to
the Ministry. The government has concluded that such disease surveillance is
meaningless and its data was only for the consumption of government files.
GIS and health is the theme of this issue. Two important fields, so
close to each other and yet so far apart in a developing country like India. The
US and the UK provide lessons as to how these two fields can develop synergy
between themselves and to the benefit of the society at large. Health GIS
applications are an important area of activity at the National Centre for Health
Statistics of the US government.The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI),
the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Census and many other databases,
which are important for improved public health surveillance are widely used by
the health departments. Recently, the UK national mapping agency signed an
agreement with National Health Service (NHS) of UK for developing customised
geographic information products for the health community. OSCAR, which tracks
precise details of every motorable road in Britain, and ADDRESS-POINT, which can
pinpoint any postal address instantly, are already popular among the emergency
services run by the health authorities.
The GIS and the health community
in India are living in two separate watertight compartments. Both need each
other. The map sector of the country will find a large market for its products
and services in the Health sector. The health sector will make a quantum leap in
its service delivery using maps for better planning and decision making. But
both are not able to talk to each other due to rigid institutional framework The
limited and sometimes non-existent commercial orientation of the government
organizations (like Survey of India, Indian Council of Medical Research etc.) in
the country also led them to ignore the opportunities offered by new
technologies like GIS. As a result, they continue to operate with antiquated
technology and have little incentive, let alone funding to upgrade.
Let health create
wealth.
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