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Health GeoLab

The Health GeoLab has been established as a group in the MORU Epidemiology Department in April 2022 to strengthen and sustain the technical capacity of the health sector in countries across Asia and Pacific when it comes to the management and use of geospatial data and technologies in public health.

Doing so consolidates and institutionalizes the expertise, experience and knowledge built by MORU and the Health GeoLab Collaborative over the past decades and this not only to continue serving as a capacity strengthening and knowledge sharing hub in the Region but also to further fill the gap between sustainable development and research.

In order to achieve the above, the activities of the Health GeoLab group will focus on the following three main areas of work:

Country technical support

Provide technical assistance to the health sector regarding the geo-enablement of its HIS through in-country capacity and/or external support.
Maintenance of a roster of in-country experts working closely with the health sector

Engagement, knowledge sharing and transfer

Strengthen the link between the academic and health sector as well as partners in countries regarding the importance of the geographic dimension in public health.
Establish and maintain an innovative community of Practice to address the geographic dimension of SDG3.
Management of the Health GeoLab Collaborative for the development and sharing of resources supporting the geo-enablement of the health sector in countries: Health GeoLab reference materials and Health GeoLab knowledge repository.
Organization of regional events to address countries’ needs and challenges

Teaching and research

Train current and future public health professionals and researchers on how to effectively manage and use geospatial data and technologies in the continuity of the training material already developed: Health GeoLab workshop & training and Health GeoLab HIS Geo-Enabling course
Develop, test, and implement new methods for geospatial data collection and/or cleaning to improve data quality.
Assess the impact of suboptimal geospatial data on public health decision making.
Conduct, or provide support for, analysis of geospatial data to address public health questions