Using location to communicate and coordinate COVID19 response
By: Hannah Judge
Maps have long been used as tools to combat the spread and prevention of diseases. They help us identify hot spots and patterns, coordinate response efforts, and inform policy and planning. One of the most famous maps in history identified the source of an 1854 cholera outbreak — and inspired me to pursue a career at the nexus of maps, data, and community health.
With today’s technology, we have a unique ability to map cases and adjust resources based on real-time data. We’ve seen many maps emerge to assist the healthcare community during COVID19 — from visualizing healthcare capacity and response efforts, to mobilizing support for frontline health workers, to crowdsourcing information about testing.
These eight projects stood out to me. If you are working on projects to support healthcare systems, let us know.
COVID Care Map
The goal of COVID Care Map is to provide information on the capacity of healthcare systems as they respond to the outbreak. This is an open-source project spearheaded by volunteers from the World Bank’s GFDRR Labs, Azavea, and Development Seed and they are actively recruiting for contributors including data scientists, developers, designers, and public health experts.
UCSF COVID-19 Dashboard
Map visualizations help make sense of massive amounts of case data that healthcare providers are reviewing everyday. Data visualization dashboards like UCSF’s translate near real-time data into actionable metrics to aid collaboration and communication.
Clinician Nexus
Our most limited healthcare resource is our frontline healthcare workers. The original Clinician Nexus app used to match medical students in Minnesota with clinical rotations. Now rotations are paused, Clinician Nexus repurposed their app to help med students volunteer support services such as childcare for doctors and nurses who are giving their all to care for patients.
match4healthcare
Around the world, volunteers are stepping up to bolster healthcare systems — and maps help build momentum in recruiting and celebrating contributions. An open-source project created during a hackathon, the match4healthcare platform matches volunteers with a medical background with hospitals that need support across Germany.
UrbanFootprint
In places where caseloads are rising rapidly, health systems may require overflow care locations. UrbanFootprint is working with public agencies and hospitals to use geospatial analysis to help identify alternate care sites to expand bed capacity. Their case study of Los Angeles illustrates how location data can provide a useful starting point in building a list of potential choices.
UCSF Health Atlas
Epidemiologists and infectious diseases specialists are using maps to analyze and communicate how the virus is spreading. The UCSF Health Atlas, built by the UCSF School of Medicine and Stamen Design, has added a Data Story to trace the path of COVID-19 in California and place the case data in context.
COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative
The COVID-19 host genetics initiative is rallying the global scientific community to generate, share, and analyze data to help understand and treat this virus — using a map to visualize their growing network.
COVID Near You
Maps of self-reported symptoms provide a birds-eye view of trends in how people are feeling. Open-source, not-for-profit app COVID Near You by the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School asks people to publicly report their household health status to help spot potential infection ‘hot spots’ as they emerge.
What new ways can maps support our response to COVID-19? Please build and share your ideas with us on Twitter using #BuiltWithMapbox. If you are working on a project that needs support, reach out to us. We’re helping teams of all sizes to build tools to aid in COVID-19 response.
Hannah Judge - Senior Technical Account Manager - Mapbox | LinkedIn
The Mapbox Community Team provides tools and resources to individuals and organizations using maps for positive impact. Learn more about Mapbox Community and get in touch with our team.
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Maps for frontline health workers was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.