ABSTRACT
This chapter is an introduction to ways in which spatial analytic techniques can be used in the study of disease patterns and health care delivery, the two principal concerns of medical geography. A search through the literature on medical geography in the mid-1980s revealed that a great deal of interesting and useful work had used spatial analytic techniques as aids in understanding both disease patterns and health care delivery systems. The result was a review article (Gesler, 1986). Since that time, the literature has grown, most notably in two directions. First, some of the techniques described in the review article have become more sophisticated. Second, as predicted in the 1986 paper, GIS has been increasingly used in applying the techniques (Albert et al., 1995). Indeed, GIS technology has fostered a revival in the spatial analysis of health and disease phenomena, often facilitating the rapid calculation of appropriate formulas and the display of results. This chapter introduces the reader to a set of spatial analytic techniques that have and can be used by medical geographers and others. It also provides a useful bibliography of relevant research.
