Abstract
Cancer control researchers seek to reduce the burden of cancer by studying interventions, their impact in defined populations, and the means by which they can be better used. The first step in cancer control is identifying where the cancer burden is elevated, which suggests locations where interventions are needed. Geographic information systems (GIS) and other spatial analytic methods provide such a solution and thus can play a major role in cancer control. This report presents findings from a workshop held June 16–17, 2005, to bring together experts and stakeholders to address current issues in GIScience and cancer control. A broad range of areas of expertise and interest was represented, including epidemiology, geography, statistics, environmental health, social science, cancer control, cancer registry operations, and cancer advocacy. The goals of this workshop were to build consensus on important policy and research questions, identify roadblocks to future progress in this field, and provide recommendations to overcome these roadblocks.
Highlights
Cancer control researchers seek to reduce the burden of cancer by studying interventions, their impact in defined populations, and the means by which they can be better used [1,2]
The health community in general and the cancer control community in particular have only recently embraced the use of Geographic information systems (GIS) methods
We are at a key point in which the issues identified here need to be addressed before GIS methods can be fully used to lessen the cancer burden
Summary
Cancer control researchers seek to reduce the burden of cancer by studying interventions, their impact in defined populations, and the means by which they can be better used [1,2]. GIS centers of excellence (19 votes) Issues Workshop participants focused on applied or translational GIS applications to promote cancer control and prevention These types of projects must include an interdisciplinary team of scientists, including health policy experts, environmental scientists, geographers, in addition to statisticians and GIS scientists. The center would develop partnerships with public health and community-based organizations and could provide an environment to foster collaboration between domain experts and GIS researchers who have methodologies that could be applied to cancer control problems. Many of these issues concerned training of cancer control staff, policy makers and others who need to process or understand geographic data, methods, and tools Suggestions for accomplishing this objective included developing mentorship and training programs, developing and disseminating best practices for geographically-related analysis, and creating an information exchange forum on needs and solutions for users and providers of geographic data and related analytic methods. Other suggestions included for the development of GIS methods that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of programs designed to reduce the cancer burden and the creation of userfriendly GIS tools for users of all technical levels
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
