To create a software product that seamlessly integrates a Geographical Information System (GIS) with a document imaging system, allowing public health officials and researchers to study the incidence of arboviral encephalitis and distribution of mosquito vector species. Imaging combined with a GIS will allow case reports, vector distribution, and risk factors to be organized and retrieved based on geographic as well as traditional indexing criteria. An integrated database will be generated which will contain geographic, environmental, biological, demographic, and epidemiological data sets allowing researchers to use multi-layered maps to determine spatial patterns. Trend-line and other spatiS analysis methods will assist in identification and representation of possible predictive patterns. Derived data sets as well as rendered map images can be saved and e-used. Presentation-quality output will be available throughout. This user-friendly tool will give CDC personnel, of ficials of state health departments and researchers access to data included in scanned case reports in association with all other entomological, epidemiological, and environmental information. The proposed system will assist CDC and other health officials in developing a proactive surveillance system and in the planning and implementation of control and prevention measures.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:The marriage of GIS and Imaging is a logical integration with clear application for any group that collects documents/reports which are inherently geographic in nature. The ability to transfer case report geographic coordinates into a GIS brings flat documents into a geographic database which can be displayed sparely. The ability to return imaged case reports and documents based on user-defined geographic queries which match perceived trends or meet spatial criteria gives researchers digital access to primary resource material.National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID)
