1. CARTOGRAPHIC TOOLS FOR
HEALTH DATA PRESENTATION
Petr Kubicek, Zdenek Stachon, Radim Stampach
Laboratory on Geoinformatics and Cartography
Masaryk University
Edvard Geryk
University Hospital Brno
Dresden, May 14 2010

2. Introduction
• The cartographic visualization is a useful way for presentation
of statistics including health data.
• The map can be also used for monitoring and analyzing of
situation.
• Cartographic outputs can be useful for common people, as well
as specialists in health and civil services.
• The topic of health data visualization is one of applications where
the usage of cartographic tools is underestimated.
• This paper describes the web portal for medical data
presentation focused on different groups of users.
• The web portal contains tools for data visualization with
different levels of cartographic complexity (static map x tool
for exploratory cartographic analysis x innovative cartographic
„mash-ups“).

3. Background
Project synopsis:
– „Visualisation of health data in supporting of interdisciplinary
education and public relations (Visualhealth)“, 2008 – 2009.
– Project was focused on the development of interdisciplinary
relationships on the edge of scientific and medical
fields. The main approach concerns to the establishment of
educational modules for the visualization of medical data and
public relation of above mentioned fields.
Funding – Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.
Project partners:
– Masaryk University
• Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Studies
– University of Western Bohemia in Pilsen
• Faculty of Applied Sciences
– The University Hospital Brno

4. Project goals
1. State of the art analysis – contemporary health
data and their visualization within the Czech
Republic.
2. Development of cartographic tools for health data
and using for visualization of selected diagnoses.
3. Web portal for health data visualization and
interdisciplinary research.

5. Goal 1
State of the art analysis – contemporary health data and
their visualization within the Czech Republic.
Main results:
• Incidence – Prevalence – Mortality for cancer
• Prevalence – number of patients living with diagnosis.
• Indicator of contemporary and expected health care
expenditures – increasing year to year.
• Prevalence data men/woman according to age, diagnoses and
clinical stages in regions of Czech Republic for 1989-2005.
• Statistical modelling of predicted development to 2015 –
estimated cancer expenditures nearly 500 mill. EUR.

8. Goal 2
Development of cartographic tools for
health data and using for visualization of
selected diagnoses.
Main results:
– Visualization tools – 4 basic types for
different end users.
– Based on (Cartography)3 model
(MacEachern 1994)

9. using of
map
private
human-map
interaction
public
low high
low
potential of
revealing
unknowns high

10. Static maps
Classic choropleth maps with bar diagrams.

11. Dynamic maps
Classic maps but generated dynamically from database
on demand of user.

12. Interactive maps – TimeSeries
tool
Tool for statistical time series presentation. User
has possibilities to change the map appearance, to
change region level of map, to animate selected
time period etc.

13. Google Earth mash-up
Thematic maps that uses global map source of
Google Earth. Statistical trend in time can be
searched in animation.

14. Goal 3
Web portal for health data visualization and
interdisciplinary research.
Main results:
– Web portal design and development
http://zdravi.geogr.muni.cz.
– Health data presentation, references to other
sources of information.
– Interactive and interdisciplinary educational
documents.

15. http://zdravi.geogr.muni.cz

16. Patient
section

18. Expert
section

20. Health status
information

21. Liver
cancer prevalence

22. Prevalence predicton – e.g. colon cancer

23. Information sources

24. E-learning documents

25. Conclusion
• VisualHealth – 3/2008 – 12/2009
• Main pilot output for health data visualization:
http://zdravi.geogr.muni.cz
• Interdisciplinary cooperation – cartography/GIS –
epidemiology – social science.
• Synergy with international activities – INSPIRE, ICA,
ECHIM - European Community Health Indicators
Monitoring.

26. Memento nádorů gastrointestinálního traktu v ČR
Počet nemocných s dg. C15-C26 se v letech 1989–2005 zvýšil z
10 425 na 27 204 mužů tj. o 161 %
9 530 na 22 562 žen tj. o 136,7 %
V letech 1976–2006 bylo evidováno 369 582 nádorů GIT, z nich bylo spojeno
s dalšími novotvary 12 % onemocnění u mužů a 11 % u žen.
V roce 2006 bylo
nově diagnostikováno 13 958 nádorů GIT (7 968 mužů a 5 990 žen)
na nádor GIT zemřelo 9 714 nemocných (5 389 mužů a 4 325 žen)
Nový nádor GIT je průměrně zjištěn každých 40 minut, denně umírá 27 pacientů.
Thank you for your attention.