THE ROLE OF CARTOGRAPHY IN MEDICAL RESEARCH

Abstract

The article presents a new direction of earth and human sciences - medical mapping. The modern concept of medical mapping and its benefits for population health are discussed. The contemporary Geographic Information System (GIS) made generating of medical maps relatively easy. In this study, multiple medical maps were compiled (only two are presented here) based on databases for two neurological diseases - hereditary peripheral neuropathies and epilepsy in GIS environments. The number of patients included in the database is updated regularly, which requires a technology that makes it possible to easily compile maps that represent constantly changing data. For this reason GIS technology is one of the most promising tool in epidemiological researches.

Keywords

• medical maps
• neurological diseases