May 13, 2013 (Des Plaines, IL) -- The deadline for early registration discounts for URISA's Fourth GIS in Public Health Conference is fast approaching (May 15). The conference will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Miami, Florida, June 17-20, 2013. Discounted hotel rates are also available to conference attendees through May 27.

This biennial conference has been previously presented in New Orleans (2007), Providence (2009) and Atlanta (2011) and was established to provide an open and participatory forum for advancing the effective use of spatial information and geographic information system technologies across the domains of public health, healthcare and community health preparedness.

The conference is honored to welcome Dr. Estella Geraghty, MD, MS, MPH, FACP, GISP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Internal Medicine, University of California Davis as the opening keynote speaker. She will address Big Data and Public Health in her remarks.

Dr. Andrew Curtis, Director of the GIS Health and Hazards Lab at Kent State University will provide the closing keynote address on Thursday, June 20, discussing the important topic of  "Health, Disasters and Crime: Working geospatially at the “scale” of intervention". This presentation will focus on two topical areas linked by a field-based spatial technologies and analytical perspective: 1) the disasters and health nexus and 2) gun-related violence in “typical” US cities.

The event is led by long-time program committee member, Jason K. Blackburn, PhD, Emerging Pathogens Institute & Department of Geography at the University of Florida. The educational program was developed through a peer review of submissions received through a Call for Presentations. Important preconference courses will be taught on Monday, June 17:

• An Overview of Open Source GIS Software
• Detecting Clusters of Adverse Health Outcomes using SaTScan™
• Geospatial Data Collection for Micro-Environments and Multiple Time Periods: The Use of Spatial Video

Dozens of speakers from across the globe will discuss topics ranging from health care access and technology applications to environmental and chronic disease mapping and modeling:

• Mobile Maps in Healthcare Apps
  Deborah Vollmer Dahlke, MPAff Director, Texas Life Science Foundation, Austin, TX
• Radon In Schools
  Stephanie Foster, MPH, MA, Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA
• Biofilms, Microbes, and Beach Water Quality: An Analysis of Florida Counties
  Elizabeth Kelly, University of Miami, Miami, FL
• Using Geospatial Mapping to Address the Burden of Diabetes in Durham County, NC
  Benjamin Strauss, MS, GIS Analyst, Children's Environmental Health Initiative, Ann Arbor, MI
  Nicole Sandberg, MURP, GIS Analyst, Children's Environmental Health Initiative, Ann Arbor, MI 
• HealthGIS for Reaching the Unreached Population
  Paban Kumar Ghimire, Deputy Director, Department of Health Services, Nepal
• Macro Mapping of Dengue Virus Vector
  Lynette Akong, Bsc, Msc, Ministry of Planning and Sustainable Development, Trinidad and Tobago
• Spatial Modeling of Malaria Parasitemia in Young Children in Tanzania
  Rebecca Stallings, MHS Biostatistics Graduate Student, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO
• Preparing for the Future: Are Caribbean Countries Positioned to Manage the Increase in Non-communicable Illnesses?
  Patricia Boda, PhD, Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
• Comparing Primary Care Service Areas to Estimated Drive Times
  Sean Finnegan, MS, Research and GIS Data Manager, American Academy of Family Physicians, Washington, DC
• Individual/ Neighborhood Correlates of Membership in HIV Prevalent Drug Networks
  Abby Rudolph, PhD., M.P.H., Research Scientist, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Calverton, MD
• Assessment of Individual Spatial Behavior: Results of the RECORD Cohort Study
  Camille Perchoux, MSc, Ph.D. Student, UdeM / CRCHUM, Montreal, Quebec Canada
  Yan Kestens, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, UdeM / CRCHUM, Montreal, Quebec Canada
• Sweet Home Chicago: An Analysis of the Effects of Socio-economic and Population
  Evanielis Grissom, PhD Student, University of Illinois-Urbana, Champaign, IL
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in India: GIS is The Tool for Epidemiological Studies
  Arun Sharma, MD, Professor, University College of Medical Sciences, India
  Marilyn O'Hara, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
• Small-Area Geographies of Mental Health in England
  Nick Bearman,  Associate Research Fellow in GIS, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, United Kingdom

The poster session is certainly a highlight of the conference, with nearly 30 participants demonstrating their research including:

• Using the Map as a Guide: Building GIS Capacity for Chronic Disease in State Health
  Nicole Sandberg, MURP, GIS Analyst, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
• Predict Heat Stress Using RCP Data for Major Cities in South Korea
  Suji Lee, Master of Public Health, Ph.D Student/Researcher, Korea University Graduate School, Seoul, South Korea
  Bo Yeon Kwon, Master of Public Health, Ph.D Student/Researcher, Korea University Graduate School, Seoul, South Korea
• Coastal Georgia is Not Immune: Hurricane History Analysis, 1750-2012
  Brian Bossak, PhD, MPH, Division Director of Environmental Health Sciences, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA
  Sarah Keihany, MPH, Research Assistant, JPHCOPH, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA
• Socio-Spatial Patterning of Alcohol Outlets after a Policy Change
  Daikwon Han, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
  Dennis Gorman, PhD, MSc, BA, Professor, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
• Disparities in Accessibility of Physician Response Vehicle and Helicopter EMS
  Michi Sakai, PhD, MPH, Associate Director, Center for Health Service, Outcomes Research and Development – Japan (CHORD-J), Japan
  Noriaki Aoki, MD, PhD, MS, MBA, CPE, FACP, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Informatics, Houston, TX

Early registration discounts are available until May 15 and sponsorship opportunities are plentiful. For specific conference details and participation options, visit http://www.urisa.org/2013health


Contact:

Wendy Nelson,
Executive Director,
URISA,
Tel.: 847-824-6300
Email Contact 
www.urisa.org