Geographical Information Systems and on-line GIServices for health data sharing and management.

Integrating Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology and public health experience may represent a solution for a better comprehension of spatial and temporal trends of phenomena. Useful applications can be built that support practitioners in their daily tasks, from risk assessment to prevention programmes. Also, making available data on the Internet through GIServices represents an important goal. Institutions and public health practitioners may benefit from the technological integration of GIS, the Web, handheld and mobile global positioning systems (GPS) devices. Expert users may be supported in deriving thematic maps which represent a spatial synthesis documentation starting from an analytic study expressed in terms of numbers and features. In this paper we show an example of an on-line data sharing and processing application, emphasizing ways GIS can provide added value to health research and management.