ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews geographical research on health care. Its general message is that this is a wide-ranging academic field involving substantial disciplinary contributions from the health sciences and the social science of geography. Geographical ideas on health care have by far the longer history in the health sciences which forged early inquiry from ancient Greek times and for many centuries thereafter. Roman Civilizations, for example, used ideas from Airs, Waters and Places alongside their own theories on hygiene and health. Written in the second century BC, the key Chinese documents Huang Ti Ching, Su Wen and Ling Shu Ching introduced the idea of parallelism, which included the concepts of macrocosm and microcosm. Maritime exploration, although motivated by economic, cultural and political factors, also included a quest for knowledge of exotic health conditions. Health services research has developed into a vast multidisciplinary field that includes contributions from a range of health professional disciplines, biostatisticians, epidemiologists and others.
