Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/1294438
Humans are a resilient and adaptive species. Faced with armed conflicts, humanitarian tragedies, natural disasters and health emergencies, we learn to look at situations in new ways and to respond with innovation. The health community has seen this during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced health professionals worldwide to review, rethink and reimagine their health preparedness workflows. But this work is part of a larger trend of innovation in health preparedness and recovery. Mosquito-borne malaria, West Nile virus or any disease transferred to humans from other species, is a recurring worldwide threat. Early response efforts to these diseases incorporated hand-drawn maps to plan pesticide applications and paper- or PDF-based maps to visualize cases of human disease. But the past five years have seen a dramatic shift in response efforts. The 2015-2016 Zika pandemic brought a transition to fully integrated workflows that include surveillance, managing public requests, providing vector control measures, and using interactive maps for public outreach and communication. Fully digital and interoperable systems streamlined data collection, process management and accountability. The opioid epidemic has driven further innovation because it is far more complex than traditional health emergencies. In particular, the range of stakeholders is vast, including not only physicians, pharmacists and other public health professionals, but also social services, public safety agencies, coroners and medical examiners, policymakers, and educators. Solutions require a cross-sectoral and collaborative approach. Communities used GIS to connect key data points from first responders and public health authorities, and to align jurisdictional activities around local initiatives. They also found ways to destigmatize opioid addiction in the public eye and to connect people with information. For example, we saw broad participation in crowdsourcing the stories of friends and family members lost to opioid overdoses. This provided a new way to connect people to the issue. Stories draw people in and promote empathy in ways that data, statistics and charts never will. In the past five years, the conversation around homelessness has increased. Several jurisdictions have declared states of emergency to increase their flexibility in managing resources to support solutions. GIS has played an instrumental role. Communities rely on GIS to automate the collection and reporting of data, to speed analysis and funding for mitigation efforts, and to support the development of evidence-based policies. GIS has a long history when it comes to infectious disease outbreak response, from the plague, yellow fever and cholera to polio, Ebola and COVID-19. Whether dealing with local outbreaks or a full-scale pandemic, we've seen a whole new paradigm of spatial thinking to support decision-making, response and recovery actions. For the first time on a global scale, we've seen near-real-time surveillance via global and local map-based dashboards. • Organizations are using human mobility data to estimate the adherence to social distancing guidelines. • Communities are monitoring their health care systems' capacity through spatially enabled surge tools. • Governments are using location-allocation methods to site new resources (i.e., testing sites and augmented care sites) in ways that account for at-risk and vulnerable populations. • They are making information available to their residents with easy-to-use resource locators. • To support next steps and reopening of economies, many communities are using maps and spatial analysis to review case trends at local levels. • Organizations of all types are thinking spatially about indoor spaces as they consider "back-to-the-workplace" plans that account for physical distancing and employee safety needs. Innovation happens every day in health GIS, but now it's happening at lightning speed. Agencies should be thinking about how to raise the bar for preparedness, response and recovery plans because the next crisis is just around the corner. A Look Back Moves Us Forward 4 Industry Perspective