Investigators such as Dr. Elizabeth Baker, Associate Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Social Determinants of Health Core at UAB, utilize GIS to explore how area-level measures, such as environmental and socioeconomic indicators, impact health outcomes. By mapping data on factors like temperature, tree canopy coverage, and access to oncology providers, Dr. Baker and her team identify patterns that inform public health interventions.

Additionally, GIS is used to map environmental pollution, such as Superfund sites, in relation to disadvantaged neighborhoods. These visualizations are critical for understanding the impacts on community health and informing environmental justice initiatives.

The UAB Heersink School of Medicine actively engages with GIS for various projects, such as drive-time analyses to assess patient access to HIV providers and identifying hotspots of chronic diseases like cardiac arrest in order to pinpoint areas needing targeted interventions.

Ariann Nassel, GIS expert and Director of Geospatial Data Visualization in the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, has developed a series of interactive web mapping applications—also known as StoryMaps—to visualize pediatric hospital utilization across the United States for the Pediatric Pandemic Network. StoryMaps harness the power of maps to communicate narratives and incorporate various forms of media, easily shared using just a URL. By allowing users to explore demographic characteristics and health data at the zip code level, these tools enhance understanding of healthcare access and guide improvements in pediatric care.

The project was also a practical example of the impact of GIS visualization. While mapping patient data for a specific hospital, Nassel noticed the absence of patients from certain areas—a finding that seemed unlikely given the hospital's location. This anomaly prompted further investigation, leading to the discovery of data retrieval errors caused by misspelled county names. Without the visual insights provided by GIS, such critical errors might have gone unnoticed, potentially skewing research findings and affecting healthcare decisions.

Dr. Akhlaque Haque, Professor, UAB Department of Political Science and Public Administration, conducts extensive research on urban environments, focusing on the interplay between historical biases, environmental factors, and public health. Using GIS to analyze spatial patterns, his work integrates historical redlining maps with modern urban data to reveal how formerly redlined neighborhoods continue to face environmental challenges, such as limited access to green spaces and higher health risks. By mapping park accessibility and infrastructure, Dr. Haque assesses how these spaces influence health outcomes in urban areas, informing city planning and public policies aimed at enhancing overall community well-being.

Additionally, Dr. Haque’s research explores how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in urban planning can perpetuate human biases if not carefully designed. By highlighting the potential of AI to enhance equitable urban planning when deployed responsibly, this research seeks to inform strategies to mitigate historical planning biases and improve community health outcomes.

GIS is instrumental not only in research but also in grant writing. Researchers use GIS to visualize proposed target areas, such as census tracts associated with specific cities or counties or illustrate the prevalence of socioeconomic factors or environmental pollution. These visualizations strengthen grant proposals by providing clear, spatially informed evidence of need and potential impact. For instance, mapping drive times to healthcare facilities or areas with high disease incidence can highlight gaps in services and justify funding requests for targeted programs.