NAACCR, Inc.

Geographic Information Systems Committee
The GIS Ad Hoc Committee was formed to address the appropriate uses of geographic information systems (GIS) in cancer registry practice. The committee will work towards fulfilling the recommendations and encouraging GIS education and research in the areas outlined on pages 53-55 in the October 2002 NAACCR publication, "Using Geographic Information Systems Technology in the Collection, Analysis and Presentation of Cancer Registry Data: A Handbook of Basic Practices".

This committee's web page can also be accessed using the address: http://www.naaccr.org/committees/gis
Geocoded NPI File
Publications
Education
Distance Calculator
This SAS code calculates the great circle distance between the locations of cases at the time of diagnosis and the locations of treatment facilities. Case locations are taken from NAACCR items 2352 (latitude) and 2354 (longitude) in NAACCR v10 or v11 layout file. The program can use either source (unconsolidated) or consolidated case reports as input. A second input file contains facility IDs, latitude, and longitude.
GIS Survey
This survey is meant to assess the GIS capabilities and training needs of the NAACCR membership registries. The survey results will be used to identify areas where GIS tools or resources may be needed and encourage NAACCR to promote development of education and training activities, and resources that could be pooled or shared by its member registries.
SatScan Google Earth Cluster Viewer
The SatScan-Google Earth Cluster Viewer is a tool to enhance the SatScan software suite by providing a visual display in Google Earth from a SatScan output file. Using the python scripting language, this tool reads the SatScan output, selects results with a p-value less than .05, and then creates the .kml file for display in Google Earth allowing the user a choice of icon size and color. The tool also allows the user the option to open the file in Google Earth automatically. The program can either be run from a DOS command prompt, or through the interactive GUI (graphical user interface), which allows the user to interactively search their system for the file input.

Google Earth is a particularly good choice of interactive mapping software for viewing cancer clusters because of the ease of operation and variety of options available to the user. The program allows for measuring distances, searching addresses, and locating sites of interest—all of which can further illuminate the environment in which a cluster of cancer incidence is found. By using the SatScan-Google Earth Cluster Viewer to automatically display results from Satscan (the cluster detection software most widely used at state cancer registries), visual inspection of areas where clusters occur is possible with minimal effort necessary on the part of the researcher.

Software requirements: Google Earth, SatScan, Python, and if the program is to run interactively with the GUI, the EasyGUI python module must also be installed.
Meeting Minutes (Word/PDF)

This web-site is supported in part with Federal funds by Cooperative Agreement Number 5U58DP001803 from CDC. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC. This web-site is also supported in part with Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under contract number HHSN261200900015C / ADB No. N02-PC-2009-00015. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI, NIH, or DHHS.

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