Now that the health community is in a state of reflection, how do we
put the lessons learned into practice?
As we step back to examine the worldwide response to the COVID-19
pandemic, now is the time to think about how to raise the bar for our
response to the next public health emergency. Now is the time to revisit
health preparedness strategies and plans. And now is the time to review
what the health community did that worked--and how we can do that again.
Learning from COVID-19: GIS for Pandemics tells real-life stories
about how spatial thinking became invaluable in both local and
full-scale outbreaks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Needing to answer the question of "where" sat at the forefront of
everyone's mind, and using a geographic information system (GIS) for
real-time surveillance transformed possibly overwhelming data into
location intelligence that provided agencies and civic leaders with
valuable insights.
Co-edited by Esri chief medical officer Dr. Este Geraghty, this book
highlights best practices, key GIS capabilities, and lessons learned
during the COVID-19 response that can help communities prepare for the
next crisis. GIS has empowered:
- Communities to monitor their health care systems' capacity through
spatially enabled surge tools
- Governments to use location-allocation methods to site new resources
(i.e., testing sites and augmented care sites) in ways that account
for at-risk and vulnerable populations
- Communities to use maps and spatial analysis to review case trends at
local levels to support reopening of economies
- Organizations to think spatially as they consider
"back-to-the-workplace" plans that account for physical distancing and
employee safety needs
Learning from COVID-19 also includes a "next steps" section that
provides ideas, strategies, tools, and actions to help jump-start your
own use of GIS, either as a citizen scientist or a health professional.
A collection of online resources, including additional stories, videos,
new ideas and concepts, and downloadable tools and content, complements
this book.
Now is the time to use science and data to make informed decisions for
our future, and this book shows us how we can do it.
