2024 Summer Program in Population Health Course:

Using GIS to Understand Population Health  

Registration: Register before May 7 to take advantage of the early bird special!

• Early bird cost before May 7: $400
• Cost on or after May 7: $500 
• Special student rate: $100 Students eligible for the discounted rate include full and part-time undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students from any college or university in Ohio. 

Please email Samantha Hicks at hicks.598@osu.edu for more information on how to receive the student rate or to register by bulk or with a purchase order. 

Dates/Times: Thursday, May 30 & Friday, May 31 from 8:30 am – 5pm both days 

Instructors: 

Jesse Plascak, PhD, MPH

Director, SPACE (Socio-sPatial attributes and actions to Achieve Cancer Equity) Lab

Assistant Professor, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control 

The Ohio State University

Elizabeth Ghias, MS

Program Coordinator, SPACE Lab    

Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cancer Control Program

The Ohio State University

Course Description:

A geographic Information System (GIS) is designed to create, manage, analyze, and display data with locational information. Within a GIS are powerful and flexible tools that are often used by public health practitioners and scientists to better understand health-related resources, risks, and outcomes. This course offers an introduction to GIS and how it is used in population health to better understand the relationships between the environment, people, and their health. Topics include: the geographic nature of population health, types of spatial data and the management and integration of spatial data into health research, visualization and mapping, and basic spatial analysis techniques. The practical component of this class involves hands-on experience with GIS apps with a focus on ArcGIS. Participants will learn basic skills required to use and understand common GIS applications within public health departments. 

Please note that the facility does not have computers onsite. Participants will need to bring their own laptop with access to ArcGIS Pro with ArcGIS Business Analyst. For a 21-day free trial for ArcGIS pro, go to https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-pro/trial/professionals and for ArcGIS Business Analyst go to: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-business-analyst/trial/professionals within 3 weeks of the course start.   

Course Objectives:

• Explain how geographic and spatial methods contribute to the understanding of public health 
• Demonstrate basic data management skills and knowledge of sources of spatial data for public health purposes 
• Create effective maps to visualize and communicate public health data 
• Apply basic GIS operations to create new information and insights from spatial data 
• Define and analyze spatial autocorrelation 
• Explain and estimate geographic accessibility
• Acquire technical skills in the use of ArcGIS Pro software

Continuing Education & Contact Information:

Approval for continuing education credits is pending for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES/MCHES), Registered Environmental Health Specialists and those Certified in Public Health. 

Contact Samantha Hicks at hicks.598@osu.edu with questions about registration, continuing education contact hours and accommodation requests.