TY - JOUR
T1 - Making health data maps
T2 - A case study of a community/university research collaboration
AU - Buckeridge, David L.
AU - Mason, Robin
AU - Robertson, Ann
AU - Frank, John
AU - Glazier, Richard
AU - Purdon, Lorraine
AU - Amrhein, Carl G.
AU - Chaudhuri, Nita
AU - Fuller-Thomson, Esme
AU - Gozdyra, Peter
AU - Hulchanski, David
AU - Moldofsky, Byron
AU - Thompson, Maureen
AU - Wright, Robert
N1 - Funding Information:
We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Health Research Development Program (NHRDP), which provided funding for the research project under grant number #6606-6070-002.
PY - 2002/10
Y1 - 2002/10
N2 - This paper presents the main findings from a collaborative community/university research project in Canada. The goal of the project was to improve access to community health information, and in so doing, enhance our knowledge of the development of community health information resources and community/university collaboration. The project built on a rich history of community/university collaboration in Southeast Toronto (SETO), and employed an interdisciplinary applied research and action design. Specific project objectives were to: (1) develop via active community/university collaboration a geographic information system (GIS) for ready access to routinely collected health data, and to study logistical, conceptual and technical problems encountered during system development; and (2) to document and analyze issues that can emerge in the process of community/university research collaboration. System development involved iteration through community user assessment of need, development or refinement of the GIS, and assessment of the GIS by community users. Collaborative process assessment entailed analysis of archival material, interviews with investigators and participant observation. Over the course of the project, a system was successfully developed, and favorably assessed by users. System development problems fell into four main areas: maintaining user involvement in system development, understanding and integrating data, bringing disparate data sources together, and making use of assembled data. Major themes emerging from the community/university collaborative research process included separate community and university cultures, time as an important issue for all involved, and the impact of uncertainty and ambiguity on the collaborative process.
AB - This paper presents the main findings from a collaborative community/university research project in Canada. The goal of the project was to improve access to community health information, and in so doing, enhance our knowledge of the development of community health information resources and community/university collaboration. The project built on a rich history of community/university collaboration in Southeast Toronto (SETO), and employed an interdisciplinary applied research and action design. Specific project objectives were to: (1) develop via active community/university collaboration a geographic information system (GIS) for ready access to routinely collected health data, and to study logistical, conceptual and technical problems encountered during system development; and (2) to document and analyze issues that can emerge in the process of community/university research collaboration. System development involved iteration through community user assessment of need, development or refinement of the GIS, and assessment of the GIS by community users. Collaborative process assessment entailed analysis of archival material, interviews with investigators and participant observation. Over the course of the project, a system was successfully developed, and favorably assessed by users. System development problems fell into four main areas: maintaining user involvement in system development, understanding and integrating data, bringing disparate data sources together, and making use of assembled data. Major themes emerging from the community/university collaborative research process included separate community and university cultures, time as an important issue for all involved, and the impact of uncertainty and ambiguity on the collaborative process.
KW - Canada
KW - Community health
KW - Community/university partnership
KW - Geographic information systems
KW - Interdisciplinary
KW - Medical informatics
KW - Research collaboration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036788281&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00246-5
DO - 10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00246-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 12365530
AN - SCOPUS:0036788281
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 55
SP - 1189
EP - 1206
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 7
ER -