GIS Software Package "Epidemiological Atlas of Russia" on Current Infectious Diseases.

Abstract

The aim of the study is to develop a GIS software package "Epidemiological Atlas of Russia" on topical infectious and parasitic diseases in the Russian Federation to create an open and publicly accessible information resource allowing to improve the quality of morbidity epidemiological monitoring and analysis.

Materials and methods: The GIS software package "Epidemiological Atlas of Russia" was designed for data monitoring, epidemiological analysis, and cartographic visualization and was implemented as a web resource consisting of a web application, a package administration module, and a database management system. The following development tools were used to create the package: JavaScript, PHP, additional mapping libraries (Leaflet, OpenStreetMap), MySQL database management systems, Visual Basic .NET. The primary information for the database was taken from official federal statistical observation forms No.1 and No.2 "Information on infectious and parasitic diseases".

Results: Analytical methods and GIS technologies used in epidemiological practice were evaluated, optimal technical solutions based on the experience of developing the "Epidemiological Atlas of the Volga Federal District" were selected. A versatile database structure was designed and developed to create an array of input and output statistical values of an epidemiological nature. Original algorithms were created to obtain and evaluate epidemiological indicators. Web application "Epidemiological Atlas of Russia" was developed to present, analyze, and visualize information on infectious and parasitic diseases in the subjects of a district, federal districts, and the Russian Federation as a whole. It allows to work with report forms of the Ministry of Health to organize federal statistical monitoring in the field of health protection and with laboratory studies results to create thematic modules providing detailed information on individual nosologies. Initial data were temporally broken down by months, and spatially, by Russian Federation subjects. All visualization results were dynamically updated and generated based on user's interactive request.

Conclusion: GIS software package "Epidemiological Atlas of Russia" was developed as an open and publicly accessible information resource and is designed to improve the quality of epidemiological monitoring, operational and retrospective epidemiological analysis of the incidence of current infectious and parasitic diseases in the Russian Federation. The package is intended for use in federal executive authorities, in supervisory authorities and institutions of Rospotrebnadzor, in medical organizations of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and is in line with the state policy aimed to introduce modern technologies into practice.