Geographic Information Systems and Medical Geography: Toward a New Synergy

The past decade has witnessed wide-ranging applications of geographic information systems (GIS) in public health. The literature on GIS and medical geography has predominantly focused on how GIS can be applied as analytical and visualization tools to examine the geographic aspects of disease and health services. While GIS applications in medical geography are important and have been growing rapidly, this article argues that advances in medical geography can also have significant implications on the further development of GIScience. This article presents a comprehensive review of the reciprocal interaction between GIS and medical geography, and calls for a new synergy between both fields in future research and education efforts.