Fundamentals of Geographic Information Systems in Public Health
A three-day hands-on workshop on Geographic Information Systems using QGIS, an open-source application, was held from 28th to 30th July, 2025, at the CHTC Auditorium, Bagayam Campus, CMC Vellore.
The workshop aimed to build foundational skills in geospatial analysis, particularly for use in public health research and practice. It was designed for individuals with a background or ongoing involvement in public health, including programme managers, data analysts, researchers, trainees, and professionals involved in monitoring and evaluation, planning, implementation, and epidemiological surveillance.
A total of 27 participants from across India attended, representing a wide range of experience-from students to retired senior faculty. The sessions were conducted by Dr. Venkata Raghava Mohan (Head- Dept. of Community Medicine) and Dr. Rohan Michael Ramesh (Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory), covering raster and vector data handling, spatial queries and analysis, map projections, map creation, and data integration. Practical applications using simple open-source tools such as Google Earth were also demonstrated. Dr. Sreedevi Kotamreddy, Ms. Arpita Anbu Deborah, and Dr. Sivasakthi facilitated the hands-on sessions.
Dr. Viduthalai Virumbi Balagurusamy from the Honeybee Population Healthcare Foundation facilitated sessions on practical use cases such as real-time mapping and hotspot analysis. He also shared insights into upcoming GIS hackathons being organized in collaboration with IIT Bombay and encouraged participants to engage with future opportunities in the field. The event was well received, with participants expressing enthusiasm to apply GIS tools in public health, particularly in disease surveillance, and suggesting GIS be introduced as a short course in undergraduate and postgraduate training.