We love graphics of all kinds and can use Vermedx® to make some pretty cool maps. Now the folks at The Center for Public Health Informatics at the University of Washington in Seattle have developed an open-source GIS tool for public health that takes up your data set and makes a Google Map out of it. They call it EpiVue and it has a web page and has been published in The International Journal of Health Geographics (Hey, I'm a subscriber!).
I loaded up the CDC Diabetes Prevalence Data and gave it a whirl. I had some trouble getting the data formatted just right. And, it wouldn't take the whole dataset at once. But, I did get a pretty nice map of Texas showing the prevalence of diabetes by county. However, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to save it so I could post it here!
Overall, it's a pretty grand idea - make a free tool to advance public health epidemiology using off-the-shelf parts (Java, Google Maps, JFreeChart, R, etc.). However, its going to need a better user interface to make it a real winner. I hope they keep going with it!
Ben
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