List of Regional Health Geography Groups

 A list of health geography networks - please help us and contribute by sending us links of other existing health geography networks

International Networks
  • Healthy-Polis An initiative of Public Health England (PHE), Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) and the Australian National University (ANU). For further Details see Health Geography Groups in Australia.
  • Research Centre on Health, Quality of Life and Lifestyle in a Geodemographic and Socioeconomic Context (GeoQol) is an interdisciplinary oriented working group of scientific researchers, composed primarily of science teachers and students of the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science on the Charles University in Prague and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London. Research center is mainly interested in the analysis of the current state of the population health, individual and social ways of its care, as well as environmental impacts and socio-economic climate on human health. All this in the context of the changing intensity of the effects on health of the aimed population. 
  • GeoSaude A Facebook community started with the GeoSaude 2014 Conference to link health geographers in the Portuguese speaking countries.


​Africa

  • Eastern Africa GEO Health Hub Lead investigators from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda are collaborating with the University of Southern California and Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University to establish the Eastern Africa Global Environmental and Occupational Health Hub. A research and training collaboration funded by a joint five-year grant, housed in Ethiopia. Three main research areas: Air Pollution, Climate Change and Occupational Health/ Workplace Safety.


​Asia

  • GeoHealth Thai Platform Collection of relevant journals, spatial data websites, institutes and (inter-)national partners.
  • China Health Geography Group An official study group of the Geographical Society of China. Organizes workshops discussing topics on the health impacts of environmental change, pollution and disasters; disease transmission; urbanization, migration and health; health and health care; geography of population ageing and elder care; GIS and health. The  WeChat group’s name is “中国地理学会~健康地理学术交流群”. Contact person for further input: Yang Cheng here
Europe
Austria
Czechia
  • Research Centre on Health, Quality of Life and Lifestyle in a Geodemographic and Socioeconomic Context (GeoQol), Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague - The research Centre on Health, Quality of Life and Lifestyle in a Geodemographic and Socioeconomic Context (GeoQol) is an interdisciplinary oriented working group of scientific researchers, composed primarily of science teachers and students of the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science on the Charles University in Prague and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London. Research center is mainly interested in the analysis of the current state of the population health, individual and social ways of its care, as well as environmental impacts and socio-economic climate on human health. All this in the context of the changing intensity of the effects on health of the aimed population.

France

  • Territories and Health in the International College of Territorial Sciences (CIST) The aim of the Territories and Health research area is to create a platform for pooling approaches, data, methods and skills for all those interested in the social, political and environmental dimensions of health territories.
    In France, these approaches are currently divided into multiple research teams that are operating fragmented in terms of discipline, and between researchers and health territory practitioners, who know each other but seldom work together in a coordinated way.
    3 themes were selected to bridge the current fragmentation and work more connected in the Territories and Health in the International College of Territorial Sciences (CIST): The place of territory in health policies, the place of health in territorial policies; People’s health and territorial identification; Territorial dimension of health risks.
Germany
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  • GeoHealth Centre, University of Bonn The primary work and research fields include: Spatial-temporal analysis of the appearance of environment infectious diseases; water supply structures: data gathering, analysis, water safety plans; microbial water contamination; hygiene-geoecological risk analysis; Health & Disease Mapping; Geographic infection epidemiology; nature conservation & health protection; sport and event hygiene
  • Arbeitsgruppe Räumliche Statistik der Deutschen Region der Internationalen biometrischen Gesellschaft 
​Netherlands
Portugal
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Sweden
United Kingdom (UK)
  • Geographies of Health and Wellbeing (GoHWell), Durham University GoHWell comprises researchers in the Department of Geography concerned with the ways in which health and wellbeing may both constitute and result from inequalities in wealth, health, living conditions and life-chances. It´s an interdisciplinary Cluster of the Department of Geography, Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience, Centre for Medical Humanities and the Wolfson Research Institute (Stockton).


America
Brazil
Canada

  • Simon Fraser University Health Geography Group, Canada The health geography group at Simon Fraser University undertakes highly innovative and internationally regarded research on a variety of health - and health care - topics. As a team, we work at the intersection of spatial analysis and social aspects of health and health care.

Mexico

  • Geosalud Mexico from Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico. Coordinator: Marcela Santana.
United States of America (USA)

  • GeoHealth Innovations, Virginia non-profit organization, based in Richmond, Virginia, with a focus on the application of geospatial analysis and technology to improve decision making in public health and healthcare policy.

  • GeoHealth Lab Group, The State University of New Jersey Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis. Research group, focussed on employing geospatial research techniques to study resource patterns (like food environment, activity environement, urban greenness, access to care) in landscape that are thought to be impacting the health of residents while testing design approaches with the potential goals of improving community health.
  

 
  • Spatial Health Lab, Oregon State Univserity College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Use of geographic information systems (GIS), remotely sensing data, and primary data collection methods to conduct spatial exposure assessments for a wide range of environmental and social factors, such as air pollution, green space, land use, walkability and community belonging. These exposure methods are used within risk assessments as well as large epidemiological studies to examine associations with health outcomes (e.g. birth outcomes, lung function, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, etc.).
 
  • Spatial Health Research Group, North Carolina The research activities focus on exploring spatio-temporal patterns of disease, primarily infectious diseases of the developing world. Disease patterns are studied using a holistic approach by investigating the role of social, natural, and built environments in disease occurrence in different places and populations. Diverse statistical and spatial analytical methods are informed by theory from the fields of medical geography, epidemiology, ecology, and others. These theories and methods are used to examine topics such as how social connectivity contributes to disease incidence, the role of population-environment drivers in viral evolution, and using environmental indicators to predict disease outbreaks.
 


​Oceania

Australia
​New Zealand
  • GeoHealth Laboratory, University of Canterbury The GeoHealth Laboratory undertakes applied research in the areas of health geography, spatial epidemiology and Geographical Information Systems. In particular, work in the GeoHealth Laboratory focuses upon how the local and national contexts shape health outcomes and health inequalities.

  • Health Geography and Deprivation, University of Aukland At present the Health Geography theme looks at health inequalities and how social and physical environments shape human health. This work has led to the development of the Auckland Region Vascular Atlas and the Vascular Informatics Using Epidemiology and the Web (VIEW) project