ESRI Health GIS Conference to Connect Health Professionals

Redlands, California--ESRI announces that the Health GIS Conference will be held October 23--26, 2006, at the Denver Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. The conference provides a lively forum for discussing how geographic information system (GIS) technology is transforming the use of information technology (IT) in health and human services professions.

Attendees include health administrators, clinicians, professionals, and educators; IT managers from hospital, public health, and human services fields; and state and local preparedness coordinators. They will have a chance to hear discussions and presentations about the role of GIS in influenza pandemic preparedness, integrated incident command systems, health workforce education programs, data integration, Hurricane Katrina recovery, epidemiological analysis, and more. Conference presenters and panelists include professionals from national and international health organizations and emergency management.

A preconference seminar and spatial statistics workshop, more than 50 paper sessions, several social gatherings, and a visit to a local health organization using GIS give attendees many opportunities to learn about advances in GIS technology, renew acquaintances, and meet the actual GIS users who are improving their programs in disease surveillance, hospital administration, public health, social and human services, and environmental health. Exhibition halls will feature displays by GIS solutions providers, user-produced map posters, and educational organizations that support GIS in health education.

Plenary Sessions will discuss the wide range of emergency preparedness and response issues in which GIS plays a critical role in providing real-time, integrated information. David Miller, senior manager, Market Planning & GIS, Walgreen's, will speak Tuesday evening on how, during the Hurricane Katrina disaster response, enterprise GIS supported the work of Walgreen's and the development of solutions for delivering emergency services. On Wednesday, Declan Butler, distinguished reporter for Nature magazine, will speak at the conference awards luncheon where ESRI will recognize those in the health field who exhibit best practices in the use of GIS.

The Health GIS Conference will be held concurrently with the ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit, a conference for those interested in GIS and collaborative methods at local, regional, state, and national levels for homeland security. Sessions at both conferences are available to all attendees, and there will be a unified exhibit area to bring people together from peer organizations.

Bill Davenhall, global manager, ESRI Health and Human Services Solutions Group, notes that the Health GIS Conference is a unique opportunity for health practitioners from many types of organizations to exchange ideas on how geographic intelligence best serves their clinical, social, and business missions, whether they work in a public health agency, a hospital, a university, or an NGO. "Geographic information is vital to so many people from planning and managing scarce resources to making sure health services are delivered smartly. The conference helps share best practices in applying spatial knowledge."

The registration deadline is October 9. For additional information and to register, visit www.esri.com/healthgis.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.