Spatial distribution of public health indicators with an Open Source web application platform
Aguilar. Metzi (Pres), E Rodriguez, R. Reyes, E. Ramirez, K. Guardado
Presentation: 29.10.2013, 09:30 am [Video]
Discussion: 29.10.2013, 09:45 am [Discussion]
The vision of the Ministry of Health of El Salvador (MINSAL) is the development of a single Health Information System and in order to achieve this, it is integrating the different information systems. As part of this integration this presentation describes the process that integrates, in a single web application with open source software platform, the Indicators System (SIIG) with the Geographic Information System (Geominsal). The SIIG provides health indicators from different systems data in an accessible, unified and objective manner using graphical interfaces of different kinds (charts, maps, OLAP cubes). The Geominsal is the geographic information system of MINSAL that displays on the web through its map server the location of all public health establishments and their corresponding coverage areas. In this specific case, the integration of the two systems is facilitated because both are developed with open source software and use the same database system manager: Postgresql. The only requirement for the integration functionality is the extension of the geographical capabilities in the SIIG database as the map server that is used in the application is UMN Mapserver, which requires the storage of the geographical attribute in order to serve geographic layers. In addition, the map server uses the same SQL query used by SIIG by only adding the geographical attribute. In conclusion, it is possible to integrate the two systems as long as the same platform is used. Further research may consider the study of the possibility of developing an interactive user interface and platform independent application.
