Authors:
L. Duarte
1
;
M. Lobo
2
;
J. Viana
2
;
A. C. Freitas
2
and
A. C. Teodoro
1
Affiliations:
1
Institute of Earth Sciences, FCUP pole, Rua do Campo Alegre, Porto, Portugal, Department of Geosciences, Environment and Spatial Planning, FCUP, Porto, Portugal
;
2
Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences (MEDCIDS), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS), Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Keyword(s):
GIS, Health Care Indicators, PQI, Spatial Database.
Abstract:
Geographical variations carry important information for improving and planning more equitable and sustainable health care services. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are crucial tools that provide intuitive visual help which contributes to a better understanding of the spatial distribution of health risk factors, resources, care and outcomes. The interest in GISs have stimulated the development of several applications worldwide to publicly inform the geographical patterns of health. However, in Portugal, this type of tools remains underdeveloped for public reporting of health information. The aim of this study was to develop a GIS open source application for spatial analysis of healthcare indicators in Portugal, using hospital data obtained from the Administração Central do Sistema de Saúde, I.P. Specifically, given their importance to monitor the quality of primary health care, data regarding Prevention Quality Indicators (PQIs) will be used to establish a proof of concept of thi
s tool. The tool was connected to a spatial database in order to filter the parameters. Several maps based on PQI information were created in order to test the application. It was concluded that the spatial combination of all the data provided in a GIS software and through an intuitive application can contribute to the analysis of quality of primary health care.
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