Luis Serra
Senior Officer
Directorate-General of Health
Portugal

Biography
With a Bachelor degree in Biology and a Master degree in Geomatics Engineering recently acquired, I have developed my professional work mainly in the fields of cartography and geographic information systems (GIS), especially the production, quality control and updating of large scales cartography as also their use and dissemination through GIS and WebGIS. Since 2013 I’ve been developing my professional activity at the Portuguese Directorate-General of Health, providing technical advice to mapping health related data and information online; manipulation of health care databases to facilitate analysis and giving support to all the activities concerning the use of geographical health information.

Abstract
New Insights into an Interactive Health Mapping Tool: GEOSAUDE, a Portuguese Example

Co-Authors:
Carla Farinha, Head of the Division of Health Statistics and Monitoring, Directorate-General of Health
Maria Isabel Alves, Senior Officer, Directorate-General of Health
Paulo Nogueira, Director of the Directorate of Analysis and Information, Directorate-General of Health

Reducing avoidable health differences among groups of individuals, health inequities, has been classified by the World Health Organization as an issue of justice and human rights in addition to health. The core aim of the Portuguese National Health Plan (NHP) is to promote health equity in Portugal and a series of monitoring indicators was set to assess progress towards this aim. A web based GIS permits visualization of health inequities at multiple geographical levels, local, regional and national. Previously in Portugal, this information was only published annually in a paper based and multiple reports. GeoSaude was specially designed to present regularly updated health indicators at regional and national level and present interactive maps. A working group was convened by the Directorate-General of Health to identify how the potential of geospatial data could be harnessed. We spoke to doctors, nurses, health geographers and the director of the NHP. We consulted international health web based GIS platforms to assess advantages and weaknesses of different ways where and how geospatial health data can be presented. The working group identified that (1) there was a need of an interactive health mapping containing both health outcome and information on health determinants; (2) health information users reported that they would like to use maps in planning activities; (3) regional public health planners had limited resources and capacity in terms of GIS; (4) users reported that they preferred to have health data centralized in one platform; (5) international GIS platforms were divides in two groups: clean interface look and dashboard type. In order to be a useful tool, GeoSaude must support the users in the identification of geographical differences in the distribution of health and health determinants in Portugal. To widen accessibility, a simple user interface with clear graphics is recommended. Data must be regularly updated. It is also recommended that users have the ability to produce their own maps with their own data, using tools already available at GeoSaude (http://www.geosaude.dgs.pt).