Abstract

HIV Intervention: Using GIS to Identify and Evaluate Health Coverage
Track: Health and Human Services
Authors: Erin Garcia

This project developed a public health management application in ArcGIS to assist field and management teams in assessing HIV treatment success and planning health care facility locations in Vietnam. It integrated two existing geodatabases, implemented coverage and access analyses, and established a set of templates to produce visually consistent maps for periodic reporting. Similar systems have been used in the field of epidemiology to show the locations of infected subpopulations and treatment facilities. The Vietnam-based group in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) wanted to use and expand this concept for their efforts in curbing the epidemic. While the agency had substantial programmatic data, they needed a way to present those data to decision-makers who had little GIS experience. The GIS was also used to raise interest and promote future use in Vietnam by focusing on specific provincial areas and providing more in-depth spatial analyses for those areas.