A remote sensing and GIS course for students in public health

Abstract

Then is an increasing use of remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) by Earth science researchers to study public health problems such as vectorborne disease and environmental health. However, because remote sensing and GIS courses are not traditionally taught to medical personnel, there is a lack of understanding among many in the medical community about these techniques and their potential for studying health problems. In 1998, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), a medical school under the Department of Defense, received a NASA grant to establish a Center of Excellence in Sensing which enabled USUHS to begin offering a formal graduate course, Remote Sensing and GIS Methods in Public Health. The course has been taught twice to public health students from a variety of backgrounds including medicine, entomology and environmental health. None of the students had a remote sensing background and only one student had experience in using GIS. The course emphasizes the use of remote sensing and GIS as a tool applied to better understanding of infectious disease and environmental health interactions. The goal of the course is to give students a combination of theoretical background, examples of applications in the literature and hands-on experience in using hardware and software that will enable them to use remote sensing and GIS in their research. Because most of the students are unfamiliar with remote sensing or GIS, the course must cover the basic aspects of these topics.