This web page was created in response to many questions and concerns pertaining to how health care professionals and GIS technicians utilize computer cartography to assist in emergency response situations. Health Care personnel, such as emergency dispatchers, are in a position to directly benefit from the advantages of a GIS. Their positions require split-second decision making to ensure that the resources are allocated to the appropriate location. All of this needs to happen at a moments notice. The ease of information dissemination to those that make life saving decisions will not only help them to make more timely decisions, but also to make those decisions that much better.

Whether you require a GIS for logistic support, data interface-command capabilities, or as a visual companion to assist in information processing, the GIS is customizable and user friendly. The beauty of the GIS design is that it can be dynamic. We are no longer dependent on wall maps to provide us with information (and information that is often out-dated). For instance, during times of road construction a GIS can display the updated route detour, the date of expected completion, and the number of lanes the temporary road contains. This information is priceless information to emergency responders. Not only does it insure that ambulances travel on the most direct routes, but that potential hazards are avoided. In the following pages you will be given more examples of how a GIS can assist in emergency health care response. Though this science is in its early stage of collaboration with the health profession, the future is full of many possible assignments where spatial information can be utilized to ensure that people and resources reach each other in the most appropriate way possible.

Enjoy,

Nathaniel Bell, Simon Fraser University