Key Terms

Key Terms

Geographic information system (GIS):  A computer system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of geographical data. The acronym GIS is sometimes used for geographical information science or geospatial information studies to refer to the academic discipline or career of working with geographic information systems and is a large domain within the broader academic discipline of geoinformatics.

Intersectionality: An approach that prioritizes the interrelationships of gender, class, race and ethnicity and other social divisions and seeks to understand how power relations structure these relationships.

Mobile health (mHealth):  The emerging field of the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. mHealth can be used for data collection for monitoring patients, informing diagnosis, organizing electronic medical records and for data dissemination by presenting health care resources, recommendations and education from doctors to patients using mobile devices.

Public health surveillance: The collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of data on public health issues and its social and environmental determinants.

Right to health: A concept, which Health Canada and all provincial health services ascribe to, that was set out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, incorporated in 1948.

 Social determinants of health: Those things that influence the levels of health experienced by populations.  These determinants include income levels and social status, social support networks, education, employment/working conditions, social environments, physical environments, personal health practices and coping skills, healthy child development, gender and culture.

Spatial epidemiology: The study of patterns, causes and effects of health and diseases among certain populations.

Telehealth: Technical applications that allow physicians to provide care at a distance; a promising and unique means to provide health care and health education to dispersed populations.