From lkuntz@pioneer.state.nd.us Thu Jun 11 12:28:39 1998 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id MAA43386 for ; Thu, 11 Jun 1998 12:28:38 -0700 Received: from pioneer.state.nd.us (pioneer.state.nd.us [165.234.92.38]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id MAA22431 for ; Thu, 11 Jun 1998 12:28:25 -0700 Received: from health9 (pc3.res.health.state.nd.us [165.234.81.95]) by pioneer.state.nd.us (AIX4.2/UCB 8.7/8.7) with SMTP id OAA13522 for ; Thu, 11 Jun 1998 14:25:01 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <35802FF3.3D83@pioneer.state.nd.us> Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 14:28:51 -0500 From: Leona Kuntz Reply-To: lkuntz@pioneer.state.nd.us X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (WinNT; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: waphgis@u.washington.edu Subject: Request for GIS Info Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Hi, I am employed by the North Dakota Department of Health in the Office of Statistical Services. For the past two years, one of my duties is to perform mapping fundamentals and spatial analysis of health care data and services using Atlas GIS for Windows, version 3.03. With our present software, I only am able to geocode using zip code boundaries. The more I do with GIS the more apparent it is that I be able to geocode at the census tract level, but to do that I will either have to upgrade or replace our software. Do any veteran users of GIS have any words of wisdom for me? The GIS projects I create include both thematic maps and point-in-polygon maps with buffer zones to determine time and distance. The data within the buffer zones are aggregated to determine the area and population of the state covered by a particular service. Some of the thematic maps, (geocoded by county due to sparse population), include: · Death rates by selected diseases, · Low birth weight babies, · Smoking rates of pregnant women, · Adequate prenatal care, and · Population changes. Point-in-polygon maps include: · Rural Health Clinics, · Other clinics, · Hospitals, · Emergency Services (by service and combined services), and · Various levels of trauma centers. We chose Atlas GIS for our mapping program because it can create buffer zones around specific points of interest, which can be combined and split to eliminate duplicate counts when aggregating the data within the buffer zones. Atlas GIS is also compatible with Microsoft Excel which holds our data, but is not compatible with Excel versions greater than 4.0. As we update our office suites being limited to Excel 4.0 has become a problem. Apparently, Atlas GIS has version 4.0 ready for release, but I have not been able to get any information on it other than what is in the trade magazines. The company will not release the price or other specifics until the software hits the marketplace. Since I have used Atlas GIS exclusively, I am not sure if I would be better off upgrading our Atlas GIS or scrape it entirely for a new and better program. Taking into consideration the type of work I do with GIS, do any of you have any suggestions or experiences you can share with me? The trade magazines have a lot of information on ArcView, but I have not been able to determine if it can combine and split buffer zones to eliminate duplicate counts when aggregating the data. FYI - The Journal of Public Health Management and Practice will publish a GIS Map Roundtable in February 1999. CDC sent out a request for maps several months ago. Out of 128 maps received by CDC, 25 were selected for publication. My map on adequate prenatal care was selected as one of the 25 to be published. All of the frustrations I experienced learning how to use Atlas GIS has paid off. Leona Kuntz, Analyst North Dakota Department of Health Office of Statistical Services lkuntz@pioneer.state.nd.us .