CRC for Spatial Information

This research Project investigates the best way to represent the spatial disparity of diseases, to enable decision makers the best access to localised spatial health data. The initial focus of the Project is on cancer, with the results then to be applied to other diseases.

Better management of disease will be achieved through the development and application of new ways of

• small area disease mapping
• modelling disease and potential risk factors
• visualising the results of these models linking this new information on the spatial and temporal distribution of disease and associated risk factors with health service utilisation

These research results will be more easily communicated through the visualisation tool developed in Project 4.4.1.

Highlights

1. Research outputs:
   1. Draft report: Review of statistical methods for disease mapping
   2. Draft report: Proposals for cost-benefit evaluation in disease mapping
   3. Book chapter: “Disease Mapping”, In preparation for Case studies in Bayesian Analysis
2. Conference presentations: Bayes' on the Beach (October 2011). 
   1. Susanna Cramb and Jeff Hsieh presented a joint contributed talk at Bayes' on the Beach (October 2011).
   2. Nicole White presented an overview of the project at the Health Services Innovation Center Information Session (August 2011).  The establishment of this center has been proposed by the Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), based at QUT, and aims to foster collaborative, cross-disciplinary research within health services.
3. Conferences: Introduction to Hierarchical Modelling for Spatial Data. Instructor: Prof. Sudipto Banerjee (School of Public Health, University of Minnesota); and Bayes’ on the Beach, 6th-7th October 2011, Gold Coast.