Geographical information system for end-stage renal disease: SIGNe, an aid to public health decision making

1INSERM U444 ‘Epidémiologie et Sciences de l’Information’, Faculté de Médecine Saint-Antoine, Université Paris 6, and 2EA 222, Université Paris 5, Service de Biostatistique et d’Informatique Médicale, Hôpital Necker, Paris, France Geographical information systems (GIS) favour interactions between epidemiologic, public health and geographic data, consolidating their spatial relationships [1]. They integrate several types of data, on populations, socio-economic conditions, access to health care and environmental characteristics, and they analyse their geographic variations. Besides their ability to integrate and analyse related data, GIS allow the representation and sharing of data using standard formats and a highly efficient communication tool: the map [2]. A map summarizes a great deal of information in a unique medium; it displays graphically, and through a quasi-intuitive symbolism, spatial relationships that are difficult to depict via other means. Spatial statistics provide tools for mapping distributions of diseases and for probing for spatial patterns in the distributions and spread of diseases, and they help to identify causes. Thus, the map is a potentially powerful tool for making public health decisions [3].