Improving Community Service through Public Health Informatics

Geographic Information System (GIS) technology provides a potential approach to improve cancer outcomes in under-represented minorities and reduce health disparities. In New Jersey compared to white men, black men have a higher incidence rate (158.3 vs 267.8) and mortality rate (24.9 vs 62.0) for prostate cancer. These disparities are believed to be due, at least in part, to late detection and advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. As part of our EXPORT Center of Excellence, we implemented GIS to identify target areas for prostate cancer outreach activities. We employed GIS to: 1) map Essex County census tract demographics to determine where the greatest number of African-American males > 40 years old reside; 2) map community asset locations (churches and barbershops) through automated address mapping (geocoding); 3) create buffers around census tracts where the greatest number of Afrcian-American males > 40 reside; 4) intersect the geocoded assets with the buffers to identify assets to conduct outreach activities in the identified target areas. Utilizing GIS, we identified four target areas for prostate cancer outreach activities. Of the original 180 barbershops and 270 churches identified, we were able to reduce the number of assets to conduct outreach activities to 27 and 30 respectively. These community organizations represent “entry points” from which we can efficiently and cost-effectively launch outreach efforts to reach the greatest number of African-American males at risk for prostate cancer.