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Health GIS Tools and Applications Informing Decisions in
Yemen
Carleen Ghio,
GIS Programmer
Mark Landry,
GIS Technical Advisor,
PHRplus Project, Abt Associates Inc., Bethesda, MD, USA
Abdulkadir Nueman
GIS Programmer, PHRplus Project, Abt Associates Inc., Sana’a, Yemen
Ahmed Attieg
Senior Health Advisor, USAID/Sana’a Mission, Yemen
Abstract:
The USAID-funded Partners for Health Reformplus Project (PHRplus) is assisting five underserved and remote governorates in Yemen to improve their health care systems using evidence-based GIS decision tools based on accurate health and spatial information. Several health GIS applications have been developed to optimize the best available demographics, cleaned and enhanced GIS base map data layers, health facility survey results, and accurate health statistics and household health survey information. These customized GIS tools are improving the capacity of Ministry of Public Health and Population and governorate health office officials to visualize, understand, and make decisions more easily. Integration of these data into a relational database with a GIS interface facilitates efficient use of limited resources for improving health care in the predominately rural areas of Yemen. Four state-of-the-art health GIS applications will be described and demonstrated, namely: (1) health facility viewer: combining a map and health statistics for a health facility with digital images of exterior and interior conditions; (2) health facility targeting: using GIS to screen and/or target health care program interventions based on selection criteria; (3) health care accessibility: determining appropriate access to health facilities based on mode of transportation, road and trail conditions, terrain, and distance; and (4) health risk index: locating populations at risk to waterborne and communicable diseases associated with poor access to clean water and inadequate sanitation systems. These GIS applications demonstrate sophisticated use of health information to enhance facility utilization, improve distribution of preventive and curative care, and provide evidence-based rationale for targeted assistance and service delivery. Additionally, the health GIS may advance decentralization of selected aspects of decision-making and health reform authority.
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