IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES THROUGH SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND SPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Every day there are natural and human-caused disasters that impact public health and that have adverse impacts on the affected societies and their economic productivity. In addition, there are very subtle, evolutionary forces of global change with profound impacts on human health and well being. Satellites have long been used to illustrate and measure global and regional Earth system processes by observing circulation patterns in the atmosphere and hydrosphere; but, the direct impacts of these patterns on human health have only recently been thrust into "prime time" awareness of the scientific, economic, and policy arenas. Public health infrastructures and mechanisms that link less dramatic environmental events to public health outcomes are just beginning to emerge. Earth system science requirements needed to integrate environmental monitoring with health services rest on ( a) verifying, validating, and benchmarking the medical value of spectral and spatial observations for health; and (b), developing decision-support tools that enhance and streamline disease surveillance and information dissemination. This paper describes an effort to link air quality to respiratory health, reviews initiatives that address how data and information can be accessed to improve health services and explains how these services can assist in developing the etiology of air quality factors in health.