Authors:
Ori Gudes
1
;
Virendra Pathak
2
;
Elizabeth Kendall
3
and
Tan Yigitcanlar
2
Affiliations:
1
Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University and University Drive, Australia
;
2
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
;
3
Griffith University and University Drive, Australia
Keyword(s):
Spatial health decision support systems, Collaborative health planning, DSS, e-Health.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Decision Support Systems
;
Health Information Systems
Abstract:
The field of collaborative health planning faces significant challenges due to the lack of effective information, systems and the absence of a framework to make informed decisions. These challenges have been magnified by the rise of the healthy cities movement, consequently, there have been more frequent calls for localised, collaborative and evidence-driven decision-making. Some studies in the past have reported that the use of decision support systems (DSS) for planning healthy cities may lead to: increase collaboration between stakeholders and the general public, improve the accuracy and quality of the decision-making processes and improve the availability of data and information for health decision-makers. These links have not yet been fully tested and only a handful of studies have evaluated the impact of DSS on stakeholders, policy-makers and health planners. This study suggests a framework for developing healthy cities and introduces an online Geographic Information Systems (G
IS)-based DSS for improving the collaborative health planning. It also presents preliminary findings of an ongoing case study conducted in the Logan-Beaudesert region of Queensland, Australia. These findings highlight the perceptions of decision-making prior to the implementation of the DSS intervention. Further, the findings help us to understand the potential role of the DSS to improve collaborative health planning practice.
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