Using Google Earth in Public Health Activities

So I'm taking a Geographic Information Systems Class, and we were taught to use Google Earth. This is a program that I had for about a year prior to this class, mainly for finding places of interest before travelling there. They offer a street view level which is cool, and you may remember seeing a google vehicle driving through your neigboorhood with a big 3D camera..this is how they generated such a street view. So, its cool in that sense.

However, it also has public health uses, as you can tag locations from a satellite view. For example, if you have access to such data, you can highight all hospitals in an area, find shortest routes, plug in disease rate information to target future interventions etc. While there are a lot of mapping programs used by health officials, namely map info and arcgis, which are more professional, Google Earth may be used in resource poor settings, or in situations where more specialized training in other software packages is unavailable. Developing nations could be key here, as the software is free, and requires limited training to utilize.

So, if your in public health, consider using it for basic mapping applications. If your not, consider using the program for fun, or to see your house from a street view.


FYI. I will be writing a publication with a professor in the use of such a program for public health applications--will update you on that when time comes