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Rating: 
Summary: THE best GIS related book focussing on Public Health
Review: The scoop:
* Book consistently focuses on GIS usage in healthcare.
* Practically applicable ideas.
* Exhaustive and highly informative lessons learnt chapter.
* Very clear and crisp presentation.
* IT part needs better information.I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Melnick. He is clearly a subject matter expert. Knows the micro and macro problems and opportunities in this field.
Rating:
Summary: Public Health GIS by A Melnick
Review: This is a serious book for the serious student of both public health and geographical information systems. Not difficult, but certainly serious. Dr. Melnick does an excellent job of introducing us to GIS and then walking us through the application of GIS to various public health areas (environmental health, communicable diseases, injuries, chronic diseases, and assessment). At each point he carefully notes the applicable principles, what the data and GIS application demonstrate, and the strengths and weaknesses of the GIS approach. This should become the standard learning tool for GIS and Health. The book probably over references and over describes specific software programs and companies (e.g. see the discussion of Maptitude and Version 3.0 and 4.0 and HUD....) - these are outdated in 12 months. Obviously, the book needs a CD-ROM (or web site) with data sets and the capacity to play with some of the data. The main point of the book is doing the picture and thinking about what you end up with. Without a CD-ROM or web site we are left short of really being able to get it. In summary, despite some drawbacks this book is a winner. By the end you will not know how to do GIS, but you will know that you need to find a way to know it
Rating:
Summary: Public Health GIS by A Melnick
Review: This is a serious book for the serious student of both public health and geographical information systems. Not difficult, but certainly serious. Dr. Melnick does an excellent job of introducing us to GIS and then walking us through the application of GIS to various public health areas (environmental health, communicable diseases, injuries, chronic diseases, and assessment). At each point he carefully notes the applicable principles, what the data and GIS application demonstrate, and the strengths and weaknesses of the GIS approach. This should become the standard learning tool for GIS and Health. The book probably over references and over describes specific software programs and companies (e.g. see the discussion of Maptitude and Version 3.0 and 4.0 and HUD....) - these are outdated in 12 months. Obviously, the book needs a CD-ROM (or web site) with data sets and the capacity to play with some of the data. The main point of the book is doing the picture and thinking about what you end up with. Without a CD-ROM or web site we are left short of really being able to get it. In summary, despite some drawbacks this book is a winner. By the end you will not know how to do GIS, but you will know that you need to find a way to know it
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