The Majlis: The Role of GIS in Public HealthH. E. Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Kuwari Speaks Out |
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Editor's Note: Dr. Al-Kuwari is Qatar's newly appointed Minister of Public Health and longtime Representative for Health on the National GIS Steering Committee. He recently shared his vision of the role of GIS in Qatar's national health program with Al-Khabar. |
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Al-Khabar: How do you think GIS will change the way health care is administered in Qatar?
We are proud to say that Qatar is the only country in the world to have a national GIS program for health. Now what does that mean to the average person who needs health care in our country? First, because of a national commitment to standards and data, we have access to information that gives us a tremendous head start in implementation, such as basemaps of residential population, basic demographic details from the Ministry of Interior for all residents, water and sanitation distribution, environmental data, and so forth.
It is our vision that integrated GIS data be available to health care providers at all levels, from a top level manager to a registration clerk. Once this is in place, and this is the truly exciting part, GIS will help us take health care well beyond the idea of treating one disease in one person, but will allow us to see the person as a whole within his or her environment. GIS is the interface that will let us see health-related relationships. This is what public health is really all about. For example, we will be able to examine the relationship between disease and environmental risk factors or between disease and social risk factors. In addition, it will help us identify the social barriers to seeking health care, to examine referential patterns, and to generally provide better health care service to our residents.
Al-Khabar: What are some of the management issues involved?
Providing effective health care is a multisectorial issue and it is obvious that implementing GIS in the health care sector has been largely possible due to the steering committee's efforts in setting standards and sharing data that would not otherwise be practical or feasible for the Ministry of Public Health to develop on its own. This has enabled us to explore the potential of GIS in new areas, well beyond the traditional management of disease and into the management of the health status of the people of Qatar.
Al-Khabar: How are you implementing GIS into the health care system?
Under the direction of its Coordinator, Dr. Noor-Amin Noorani, the GIS Section for Health reports directly to my office to speed its implementation. We have also been holding regular sessions with Primary Health Care doctors and other health providers to familiarize them with GIS and it's potential applications. As part of our continuing medical education program we teach research methodology and epidemiological methods. These skills will be further enhanced by using data analyses and presentation methods provided by GIS technology, both for research evaluation and day-to-day operations management.