is the product of a tiny group of people interested in applying GIS to the study of health and disease in Hong Kong. The non-geographer researcher of this group first heard about "GIS" from an epidemiologist of Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection in 2005. In 2006, two student projects between Department of Geography and Resource Management and the School of Public Health (SPH), Chinese University of Hong Kong, were conducted, which led to the formation of a research group within the SPH Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases. The scope and dimension of the group's studies in GIS/public health have since grown, ranging from dengue, tuberculosis, asthma to HIV risk behaviours. The group has become self-identified as SpatioEpi.
In December 2007, the SpatioEpi group received a donation from an anonymous supporter, which has encouraged SpatioEpi.com to be launched as an educational effort. The vision of SpatioEpi.com is to popularise the study of geographic distribution of health conditions, disease and environmental factors as they relate to the human population. SpatioEpi believes that careful presentation of available health data on a spatial scale can enable one to make meaningful analysis.
Mr Francis Ho contributed ideas and provided support to the development of SpatioEpi ever since its inception in 2006. Sorely missed by the SpatioEpi Team when he passed away in January 2017, Mr Ho is remembered and thanked for founding this meaningful project.
是一小群致力將地理信息系統應用於本港健康及疾病研究人士的結晶品。二零零五年,香港衛生防護中心的流行病學家將『地理信息系統』應用於傳染病的研究範疇內,引起了香港中文大學何鴻燊防治傳染病研究中心研究人員的興趣。次年,中心夥同香港中文大學地理及資源管理學系完成了兩個學生研究項目,其後通過整合成立一個有關的研究小組,取名 SpatioEpi。小組在地理信息系統與公共衛生研究的範疇中不斷擴展,涵蓋課題包括登革熱、結核病、哮喘,以至愛滋病的高危行為等等。
SpatioEpi 於二零零七年十二月得到一位匿名支持者捐贈,成立 SpatioEpi.com。新網頁的遠象是推廣並普及與人口有關的健康狀況、疾病及環境因素的地理分佈知識。SpatioEpi 相信只要細心將所得的健康資料和數據於空間展現,必定可以作出意味深長的分析。
自2006年公共衛生地圖網成立開始,何柱華先生為 SpatioEpi 的發展注入意念及提供支援。2017年一月何先生不幸離世,SpatioEpi 團隊在此表達懷念,並感謝他創立項目的貢獻。