Development and representation of health indicators with thematic maps.

Italian Local Health Care Agencies (ASLs) have the role of managing the public healthcare resources in their area of competence. To this end, the ASL of Pavia has implemented a data warehouse, which collects and integrates health data of more than 500,000 people since 2004. We have exploited such data repository to compute a variety of yearly health indicators, which have been represented on thematic maps of the area. Thanks to a Web-based application, the ASL decision-makers can monitor the area with a fine-grained spatial detail, dissecting the epidemiological, economical and pharmaceutical factors underlying citizens' health and patients' care. The implemented tool is currently up-and-running and has been evaluated with a usability questionnaire on a small number of users.