This is an introductory level course in the conceptual and analytic tools used to understand how spatial distributions of exposure impact on processes and patterns of disease. It covers methods that allow: (i) examination of patterns of health and disease in place and time, (ii) application of geospatial technologies and methods for epidemiology, (iii) analysis of time-space relations, (iv) identification of clusters and diffusion of disease, and (v) study of geographical epidemiology of selected infectious and noninfectious diseases.Course Activities: Assigned readings must be read in advance of class. Students will help summarize and lead discussions on several papers; complete a term project.Students are highly encouraged to take one of the workshops on ArcGis offered by the Center for Geographical Analysis (CGA) - http://www.gis.harvard.edu.Students who wish to enroll must email an essay (maximum half-page) to the course instructor, Marcia Castro (mcastro@hsph.harvard.edu) by 5:00pm on Friday, January 18, 2019. Applicants will be notified of their status in advance of Spring I term. The essay should contain the following information: name, email, academic department and degree program, an explanation of how you will benefit from taking this course, the relevance to individual career path and/or research, and the dataset you have available to conduct spatial analysis.
Instructor: Marcia Castro