The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #35959

Dennis P. Culhane, PhD, Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania, 3535 Market Street Suite 3015, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215-349-8705, culhane@mail.med.upenn.edu

This paper describes the partnership between the University of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia and their development of web-based GIS tools in support of policy analysis and planning. The Neighborhood Information System (NIS) integrates property-level and neighborhood level data into two applications that permit users to generate tables, charts and maps, at multiple evels of aggregation, for indicators of housing distress, utility terminations, tax arrearages, sales price change, vacancy and abandonment, and building permits. The Services Utilization Monitoring System (SUMS) permits users to generate tables, charts and maps and compute basic statistics, at multiple levels of aggregation, on indicators for natality, child mortality, school attendance, school achievement, child welfare, and child poverty. The paper describes the mutual benefit to city agencies and researchers of archival, longitudinal data for developing temporal and spatial models of the built and social environments, their utility for policy analysis and planning.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) will be able to

• identify uses for web-based GIS technology to inform public health policy and research
• Articulate how the data systems in Philadelphia have been used to plan at the neighborhood level, and
• Develop a plan for utilizing geographic information in their communties.

Keywords: Public Health Policy, Surveillance

Related Web page: www.uphs.upenn.edu/cmhpsr/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.