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Areas of focus of the Geospatial Analysis and Health Outcomes Shared Resource (GHSR), led by Dr. Abiodun Oluyomi, include geographic information system (GIS), patient-reported outcomes, community outcomes, and community-engaged research.

Services

The Geospatial Analysis and Health Outcomes Shared Resource (GHSR) provides a variety of services. Consultations and services are provided under three broad technical areas:

• Geographic information system (GIS) - spatial epidemiology
• Patient outcomes (PRO) research
• Community-engaged (CE) research

GIS/Spatial Analysis

The use of these activities by Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center members and the BCM community enhance grant applications, data analysis, exhibits/reports, and clinical and educational outreach.

Several potential applications include locating likely geographic disparities in patient access to healthcare or in incidence/prevalence of particular disease endpoints; tracking individual exposures (e.g., NOx as a surrogate for ultrafine particulate matter), behaviors (e.g., accelerometer as a measure of physical activity), and/or physiological measures (e.g., heart rate) in real-time using global positioning system (GPS) time-stamped coordinates, mobile health (mHealth) technology.

PRO Research

Facilitate best practices for measuring outcomes derived by self-report, serve as a central resource for state-of-the-science instruments and measurement methods in clinical settings, and provide in-house support services for translation, collection, and analysis of outcomes and survey data. Effort will be particularly directed toward best practices for qualitative and mixed-methods research.

CE Research

Facilitate best practices for measuring outcomes derived from community or neighborhood level data, serve as a central resource for state-of-the-science instruments and measurement methods in community settings, and provide in-house support services for translation, collection, and analysis of outcomes and survey data. Through Community-Based Participatory Research, the collaboration between researchers and community members promotes the identification of local health concerns.

Geospatial Analysis Tasks

Advisory Services

• Provide advice on the GIS (spatially referenced) data and environmental measures to consider while planning studies
• Assess opportunities to connect GIS data to other patient-level information (e.g., in electronic health record systems)
• Provide advice on GIS technical matters that are related to instrument design and use
• Provide advice on the appropriate field data gathering tools for GIS data, e.g., global positioning system, smart devices, pollution sampling/measurement

Operations Services

• Process GIS data that are related to the exposures or outcomes of interest for specific research - (non-chemical stressors (e.g., socioeconomic deprivation, crime, and tobacco retailers)
• Process GIS data that are related to the exposures or outcomes of interest for specific research - (chemical stressors (e.g., air pollution and waste sites)
• Conduct advanced GIS analysis using geospatial analysis toolsets
• Produce maps from spatial data processing/analysis for visualization and stakeholder engagement
• Provide advice on or contribute to the design of scientific presentations, reports, or manuscripts that contain GIS data

Patient Reported health Outcome (PRO)

Advisory Services

• Provide advice on how to design PRO research protocols, including appropriate hypothesis and research question
• Assess opportunities to connect PRO initiatives to projects with a different primary focus (e.g., epigenetics studies)
• Provide advice on PRO research recruitment strategies and assessment plans
• Provide advice and help select the survey instruments that are most appropriate for PRO studies

Operations Services

• Design computer-based questionnaire administration tools for PRO studies
• Offer multilingual translation services for study materials (compliance documents, instruments, etc.)
• Provide expert advice on approaches for scoring PRO instruments
• Conduct qualitative analysis services (focus group discussion, cognitive interviewing)
• Direct/oversee the inclusion of PRO data in statistical models of treatment comparisons, such as different variants of randomized-controlled clinical trials

Community Engagement (CE) Tasks 

Advisory Services 

• Provide advice on how to design CE research protocols, including appropriate hypotheses and research questions
• Assess opportunities to connect CE initiatives to projects with a different primary focus (e.g., epigenetics studies)
• Provide advice on CE research recruitment strategies and assessment plans
• Provide advice and help select the survey instruments that are most appropriate for PRO/CE studies

Operations Services

• Design computer-based questionnaire administration tools for CE studies
• Offer multilingual translation services for study materials (compliance documents, instruments, etc.)
• Provide expert advice on approaches for scoring CE instruments
• Conduct qualitative analysis services (focus group discussion, cognitive interviewing)
• Direct/oversee the inclusion of PRO data in statistical models of treatment comparisons, such as different variants of randomized-controlled clinical trials

Fees are calculated based on the characterization of task needs. Please put in a request through or to contact our faculty.