Abstract
 Mobile GIS for Public Health Preparedness and Response Track: Health and Human Services Author(s): Mark Smith North Carolina's Office of Public Health Preparedness conducted a two-year pilot project to replace traditional paper-based field data collection methods with mobile GIS applications. The methodology deploys multiple field teams equipped with pocket PCs running ArcPad, StreetMap USA, and GPS units. Data collection forms are customized using Application Builder and installed on the handheld computers. Field teams are routed to their locations using StreetMap USA. When the geographic location is recorded using the GPS unit, the form opens automatically. Field teams return to the staging area where data are uploaded wirelessly to a database on a laptop computer for quick analysis. This method has been used for a Rapid Needs Assessment after Hurricane Charley and for a Legionnaire's Disease outbreak in Western North Carolina. The mobile GIS approach to field data collection has been so successful that NC is providing funding in 2005 to expand the pilot project into a statewide bioterrorism special project. Mark Smith Guilford County Heath Department Health Surveillance 1203 Maple Street Greensboro , NC 27405 US Phone: 336.641.6844 Fax: 336-641-8144 E-mail: msmith@co.guilford.nc.us |
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