[OSGeo-UK] OGC Health DWG Summary

Fri Jul 26 04:20:41 PDT 2013

Thanks Ian.

I would recommend anyone interested in Health GIS research to consider giving their inputs to OGC Health DWG.

In 2010, the Open Source Specialist Group  of the British Computer Society organised Open Source Health Informatics (UK) Conference  where Didier Leibovici and myself presented some of research in Open Source and Open Standards in Health mapping done at the University of Nottingham. There was also many other presentations of other work done in Health Informatics.

Presentation details at http://ossg.bcs.org/2010/07/30/open-source-health-informatics-conference-london-271010/

At the University of Nottingham, we have strong research interest in Health GIS. For example

Leibovici, D.G. Bastin, L. Anand, S. Hobona, G. and Jackson, M (2011) "Spatially Clustered Associations in Health related geospatial data". Transactions in GIS, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp 347-364

Suchith

From: Edwards, Ian [mailto:ian.edwards at metoffice.gov.uk]
Sent: 26 July 2013 08:36
To: GIS-UK at JISCMAIL.AC.UK; 'GISCRG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK'; uk at lists.osgeo.org
Cc: Suchith Anand (Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk); Little, Chris; Sarran, Christophe; Eddie
Subject: OGC Health DWG Summary

Following Dianna's email about Open Source GIS training for Health Service in September, you may also be interested in the formation of the OGC Health Domain Working Group (DWG) which is concerned with Open Standards for communicating information.  See below for information, or feel free to email uk at osgeo.org<mailto:uk at osgeo.org> if you have any questions we can help with.

Ian Edwards
OSGeo:UK

From: Eddie [mailto:eoldfield at bellaliant.net]
Sent: 12 June 2013 17:14
To: Little, Chris
Subject: OGC Health DWG ad-hoc Summary / Action Items

Dear OGC Health DWG ad-hoc participant / registrant:

Thank-you for your participation and input in the OGC Health DWG Ad-Hoc, May 31st.  Thanks also for your plug!   Now I need to focus on getting co-sponsors for the Charter.

A quick summary:

An introduction to OGC and a background was provided on the lead-up to this Health DWG ad-hoc.  This included describing the OGC standards process and Domain Working Groups, and examples of health applications.  A draft charter for an OGC Health DWG was presented, in support of health marketplace needs.  Participants provided input on marketplace needs ranging from medical science, health data exchange, environment-health, standards harmonization, sharing best practices, and more.  A presentation was made by Dr. Kym Watson, EO2HEAVEN website: www.eo2heaven.org<http://www.eo2heaven.org> (see their new book, case studies, applications, and extensive documentation).  Participant input was invited toward amending the draft Health DWG Charter - while no amendments were made to the Roles and Function of the proposed Health DWG, new Statements of Need were identified (and described below).  The Draft Charter for an OGC Health DWG is attached - the wording does not preclude any kind of health-related application (thus 'Public Health' was amended to 'Health' where possible), and new additions are highlighted in yellow.  Participant inputs are summarized below and will be incorporated into the draft Health DWG Charter prior to submission.

I call on participants to indicate their interest to co-sponsor the introduction of the Health DWG Charter, including to identify key areas of mutual interest or key focus for the working group. It would be advantageous to hold a Health DWG ad-hoc teleconference within 45 to 90 days, with the aim to review the Charter and Statement of Needs, prioritize focal areas, identify standards of interest / where harmonization efforts are required, and submit the Charter to form the OGC Health Domain Working Group. Once formed, a web portal and list-serve will be created to support the Working Group. Through regular meetings of the Health DWG, we will invite speakers to exchange subject-matter expertise, and to work in concert toward mutual goals.

Attachments:

1.       Draft Charter (Doc Ref. 13-009) with possible amendments (highlighted).

2.       OGC Health DWG ad-hoc PowerPoint presentation (Eddie Oldfield)

3.       EO2HEAVEN PowerPoint presentation (Dr. Kym Watson)

4.       To view a recording of the ad-hoc webinar, visit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12495469/OGC_Health_DWG_Ad-Hoc.mov

Some points raised during the discussion:

*         Drivers exist at multiple scales (an OGC Health DWG should remain responsive to marketplace needs at all scales, but may prioritize efforts in mutually advantageous areas)

*         An OGC Health DWG may be compared to a large Tent - within which members from various regions of the world can collaborate, exchange knowledge, and work to advance geospatial data and web service standards - in direct relation to geospatial data and interoperability needs of public health, epidemiological, medical, micro-biological, disease surveillance/tracking, emergency response, adaptation and other health related applications (non-exhaustive).

*         Interoperability Experiments can serve the scientific and health communities, to inform policy, programs, prevention and adaptation strategies, while contributing to standards development process

*         An OGC Health DWG can facilitate members in cross-SDO collaboration, to avoid duplication, to reconcile and to advance standards harmonization efforts

*         Develop best practices for implementation of OGC web service standards (together) in order to protect privacy while providing permission-based access to aggregate / geo-statistical representations (e.g. range classification map)

*         Client applications must work with intermittent internet connectivity, particularly in rural and remote areas with no access to high-speed internet - these areas may be best served through mobile applications using lightweight robust data transfer protocols, offline geocaching and tiling, etc.

*         Health surveillance applications (or implementations of OGC web services) should be integrated with national health information systems

*         Privacy regulations are determined on a national basis (i.e. exchanging best practices and knowledge of policies could enhance the viability of technical solutions developed, how they manage access and permissions, and how they protect underlying health information)

*         There is a need for training and capacity building (even though it's not part of the standards process, it is critical for the take-to-market of technical solutions implementing OGC standards)

*         There is a need for examining / harmonizing features, classes, attributes, value ranges, coordinate methodologies, physical data model mappings, semantic ontologies / models, and logical linkages of into and out of several large complex data models.

*         There is a need to make geospatial data and processing resources more discoverable and accessible, repeatable, on demand, and efficient

*         Many types of data exist in the health domain - of particular interest are syndromic surveillance (health outcome / diagnosis data), remote sensing / earth observation data, sensor-observation data, environmental data, socio-economic data, other epidemiological data.  This data must have some quality assurance and information on ownership (metadata).  These types of data exist at multiple spatial and temporal scales, are not always available in national coverages.  Once published, geospatial data can be re-used for decisions/operations with short and long time frames - i.e. asynchronous.  It may be useful to create a catalogue or dictionary of data types and sources for use in the health community (global).

*         Some health applications may require big data (processing, storage, retrieval), for which best practices in Cloud computing, Service Oriented Architecture, Open Distributed Processing, and the implementation of OGC web service standards would be particularly useful.

*         Case Studies demonstrating the value (economically, scientifically) of health applications or technical solutions using OGC standards, will be useful in the wider adoption of OGC-compliant solutions in the health marketplace

*         Both proprietary and open source technical solutions may be developed using the OGC standards

*         Some existing OGC standards identified as particularly valuable to the health marketplace include:

o   WMS Web Map Service (ISO19128)

o   WFS Web Feature Service (ISO19142)

o   WPS Web Process Service

o   GML Geographical Markup Language (ISO19136)

o   CityGML

o   IndoorGML

o   CSW Catalogue Service

o   O&M Observations and Measurement (ISO19156)

o   Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) for Sensor Observation Services (SOS)

o   SLE Styled Layer Descriptor

o   KML Keyhole Markup Language

o   OGC Reference Architecture

o   Note: this is non-exhaustive, and best practice implementations of OGC standards may necessarily include their optional specifications (e.g. time tag), particular combinations/workflow sequences, new extensions and implementation profiles

o   Note: new OGC standards may be introduced via the Working Group

*         Use cases also identified include: capacity building (of local health authorities, national health authorities); real-time surveillance and rapid detection of cases; multi-tier reporting, data collection, processing, access control; program design, planning, delivery, evaluation; improving productivity in the primary care sector; improving access to health care/services; supporting health sciences; maternal and child health; redesign of mobile cancer screening routes; all hazards vulnerability/risk assessment to public health; multi-dimensional variable analysis; facilities and asset management; urban health / adaptation; and targeting interventions.

Key actions:

*         New Statements of Need for consideration in the draft Charter, expressed by participants during first ad-hoc (not verbatim):

o   Telemedicine (best practices for geospatial data exchange / visualization)

o   Health Level 7 (HL7) (best practices for geospatial data exchange / visualization)

o   Protection of Privacy or personally identifiable information and re-identification    /  Develop best practices for implementation of OGC web service standards (together) in order to protect privacy while providing permission-based access

o   Environment-Health (climate change, meteorological / weather, water quality, air quality)

o   formalize transfer of coordinate systems / POIs, which are specific in the health domain

o   formalize schemas (GML, WFS, WPS, etc) and machine-to-machine interoperable interfaces

o   Facilitate development and exchange of relational, hierarchical, and semantic models useful in the health marketplace (for various types of applications)

o   Provide a forum to exchange technical knowledge and to advance applied research (e.g. to support epidemiology, medical and micro-biological applications)

o   Facilitate members to develop technical solutions which enable geospatial data entry/collection, integration, exchange, visualization, etc. for desktop, web, and mobile applications

o   Create a queryable catalogue or dictionary of data types, definitions, and sources, useful in the health marketplace (for various types of applications)

o   Create a relational index or registry(?) of features, classes, attributes, value ranges, coordinate methodologies, physical data model mappings, semantic ontologies / models, and logical linkages of into and out of several large complex data models.

o   Raise awareness, or create a calendar, of training opportunities

o   Collect/Develop Business Cases (case studies) demonstrating value (scientifically, economically, ROI)

o   Facilitate members to build capacity (i.e. adoption of technical solutions)

o   Facilitate cross-SDO collaboration (harmonizing standards)

o   Facilitate interoperability experiments (driven by community-of-practice needs, e.g. use cases described above)

o   Facilitate adoption within national health information systems (i.e. through standards harmonization efforts and via education)

*         Welcome input on the Draft Charter - e.g. Statements of Need (focus areas) - from OGC members and health marketplace participants

*         Call a Health DWG ad-hoc teleconference within 45 to 90 days, with the aim to prioritize focal areas, finalize and submit the Charter to form a Working Group, Invite Speakers to exchange subject-matter expertise

*         Once a Health DWG is established, a portal page and listserve will be created for the community (OGC members and non-members), and a regular Health DWG teleconference/meeting schedule will be established.

*         Pursue working relationship with other standards groups (OASIS (e.g. XSPA-TC), HL7, SDMX-HD (ISO 17369:2013), with the World Health Organization (possibly also the UN SDI), and national health and geospatial data providers

*         Examine potential health applications using building information (BIM), Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), US and Canada National Information Exchange Models (NIEM), and others.

*         Identify geospatial data and web service encodings which support or align well with requirements of the Geo Health and Environment Community-of-Practice (GEOSS), and the larger health community.

*         Identify the Health DWG focus areas of mutual interest, given a wide range of health marketplace requirements

I welcome any questions, inputs, or feedback, on the draft Health DWG Charter, and toward the next OGC Health DWG meeting - at which point we hope to formalize the working group and nominate a Chair / Co-Chair.

Sincerely,

Eddie Oldfield, BA
Tel. 1 506-453-0887
Owner, Spatial Quest Solutions;  Member, OGC www.opengeospatial.org<http://www.opengeospatial.org>
Chair, QUEST New Brunswick Caucus; Member, National Advisory Committee, QUEST www.questcanada.org<http://www.questcanada.org/>
Member, Resilient Communities Working Group, National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (under Public Safety Canada)
Member, Atlantic Advisory Committee, Federation of Canadian Municipalities Sustainable Communities Conference 2014

________________________________
From: uk-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:uk-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Suchith Anand
Sent: 24 July 2013 16:26
To: GIS-UK at JISCMAIL.AC.UK; uk at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [OSGeo-UK] Open Source GIS for Health Services
This workshop might be of interest to some of you.

Suchith

From: Geographical Information Science Research Group (GIScRG) [mailto:GISCRG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Dianna Smith
Sent: 22 July 2013 16:02
To: GISCRG at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: QGIS training September 2013

**Apologies for cross-posting**

Dear all,

Please see below for details of an upcoming workshop in basic GIS training using Quantum GIS to be held at Queen Mary University's Whitechapel campus.

Best wishes
Dianna

Open Source GIS for Health Services

Dr Dianna Smith & Dr Adam Dennett

19-20th September 2013

Queen Mary, University of London (Whitechapel Campus)

This 2 day course provides an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using Quantum GIS's (QGIS) version 1.8.0 software. The course provides participants with the opportunity to familiarise themselves with using and navigating the software, as well as focussing on the skills of data entry, data manipulation, editing, analysis and mapping. The course is tailored to suit non-academic users who may have limited access to licensed GIS software & data.

The emphasis of this course is working with health data such as prevalence of obesity in local areas. The course will mix teaching with demonstrations and hands-on exercises. The participants will be given an overview of several key challenges in mapping and displaying health data and introduced to the most common types of map (choropleth, graduated symbol, interpolated surface).By the end of the course participants will be able to produce choropleth maps of health data, measure access to services, identify sources of open access GIS boundary files and create your own GIS files from background maps.

Basic IT skills are required. Participants will need to download the free GIS software (see http://www.qgis.org/) and install on their own laptops, which they will then bring along to use on the course. Guest wifi access will be enabled for the duration of the course and lunch is provided on both days. The fee for the course is £60.

For more information and to book a place please contact Dianna Smith (d.smith at qmul.ac.uk<mailto:d.smith at qmul.ac.uk>)

Dianna Smith, PhD
Lecturer in Health Services Research
Centre for Primary Care and Public Health
Blizard Institute
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry
Yvonne Carter Building
58 Turner Street
London
E1 2AB
t: +44 20 7882 5639
e: d.smith at qmul.ac.uk<mailto:d.smith at qmul.ac.uk>
twitter: @geodianna

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