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Explore health issues in Bulgaria using Geographic Visualization tools through the ESTAT Toolkit for analyzing data and creating hypotheses. Collaborate to analyze and share findings.
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Geographic Visualization to Support Epidemiology in Bulgaria Anthony C. Robinson GeoVISTA Center Department of Geography The Pennsylvania State University
Outline • Motivation • Introduction to Geographic Visualization • The ESTAT Toolkit • Using ESTAT to explore health in Bulgaria • Future Directions
Motivation • Health outcomes are closely tied to place and time • Epidemiology requires tools to help explore massive digital databases • Geographic Visualization is a new way to deal with these constraints • Geo-Visualization can help with analysis of health issues in Bulgaria
Geographic Visualization Common GIS • Static maps and graphics • Designed for prescribed analysis • Provides a single view Geo-Visualization • Interactive maps and graphics • Designed for data exploration • Multiple, coordinated views
Geo-Visualization at Penn State • GeoVISTA – Geographic Visualization Science, Technology and Applications Center • GeoVISTA Center creates new Geo-Viz tools for a wide range of application contexts: • Spatial Epidemiology • Emergency Management • Intelligence Analysis • Climate Change
ESTAT • The Exploratory Spatio-Temporal Analysis Toolkit Scatterplot Time Series Graph Parallel Coordinate Plot Choropleth Map
ESTAT • Designed with support from the USA National Cancer Institute (NCI) • Developed by software engineers at GeoVISTA • I worked with Epidemiologists at NCI from 2003-05 to design and evaluate ESTAT • Focused on visualizing cancer incidence, mortality, and socio-economic indicators
Application of ESTAT in USA • We have worked closely with health analysts to explore spatial patterns • ESTAT is intended to help users create new hypotheses or modify those that already exist • One particularly odd pattern has emerged: • Lung Cancer Mortality & Annual Precipitation
Exploring Health in Bulgaria • Data from BG National Center for Health Informatics, Data Presentation System • Data from BG National Statistical Institute 2001 Census results • 472 variables for 28 Oblasts • Incidence/Mortality time series (1996 – 2004) • Health care indicators • Population and social covariates
Exploring Health in Bulgaria ESTAT Demonstration
ESTAT Technical Details • Data requirements: ESRI Shapefile with corresponding databases (in .dbf or .csv formats) • Computer requirements: 512 m. of RAM, installation of the Java environment • Most computers built within the past 5 years will run ESTAT with little trouble
Open-Source Tools • ESTAT and all of the tools we build at GeoVISTA are Open Source • This means that the programs are open to all uses and that the source code is free to anyone who wishes to extend it • In short – ESTAT is free for you to use and modify as you wish!
Future Development • We are currently working to implement spatial statistic methods into ESTAT • ESTAT will be extended with a tool designed to detect clusters among variables • Soon you will be able to save and share your exploration with others
What We Can Do • Collaborate to explore and analyze relevant health issues in Bulgaria • Let us put your data into ESTAT! • We can also work together to design a custom version of ESTAT for Bulgaria
Мерси! This presentation and ESTAT with Bulgaria Data: http://www.personal.psu.edu/acr181/bulgaria.html For more about the GeoVISTA Center: http://www.geovista.psu.edu/ For academic papers see: http://www.personal.psu.edu/acr181/portfolio.html