Applications of Geospatial Information Technologies and Spatial Statistics in Health Services Research

  • 5,990

    Total downloads

  • 20k

    Total views and downloads

About this Research Topic

Submission closed

Background

The three laws of geography serve as an indispensable theoretical foundation to facilitate the analysis of a wide range of health-related issues from a geospatial perspective, such as diseases, health and social inequalities, health services, healthcare resource allocation, and health economic policies. However, biased or even misleading outcomes have been induced by traditional non-spatial health and medical analysis methods which failed to take into account those essential laws of geography. In the past decade, studies and practices of applying geospatial information technologies and spatial statistics to health economics and public health related fields have flourished. These geospatial technologies and methods have been widely used for diverse research and practical purposes such as geospatial equality analysis, geographic clustering and hotspot detection, spatial accessibility analysis, identification of regional determinants of health, and spatial interpolation and prediction. Such a wide range of geospatial-facilitated applications has contributed to the rapid development of multiple cutting-edge interdisciplinary disciplines such as spatial econometrics, health and medical geography, and spatial epidemiology. Under the current global context where big geospatial data has become a widespread tool for investigating human health and its associated factors, higher challenges are posed to geospatial health and medical methods, such as geospatial causal inference, spatiotemporal interaction modeling, coupling of individualized and regional data, mining of population movement trajectory data, the problem of scale effects in health outcomes, integration and analysis of multisource heterogeneous health data.

This Research Topic aims to intensively display some of the recently emerged and advanced geospatial information technologies and spatial health statistical methods that have been employed to tackle public health issues, especially in the fields of health services research and health economics. Our goal is to facilitate the fusion of public health and geography. For public health professionals, this research topic explores the great potential of employing geographic information science (GIScience) to facilitate a better understanding of health economic issues as well as to inform the implementation of effective health economic policies based on evidence provided by up-to-date case studies. For GIS practitioners and spatial statisticians, the research topic sheds light upon those key public health-related study areas that currently and will continue to benefit from the incorporation of geospatial analysis as well as its associated technologies and methods. As such, this research topic intends to provide a thorough picture to highlight the newest milestones achieved in such interdisciplinary domains, from methodological themes and theories to applications.

We welcome any research that falls in health services research and health economics and uses recently emerged and advanced geospatial information technologies, spatial and spatiotemporal statistical methods, as well as big geospatial data. Articles using similar geospatial approaches in spatial epidemiology, environmental health, planetary health, and social medicine are also appreciated. Potential topics to be addressed in our research topic are expected to include but not limited to,

• Applications of new techniques of Geographic Information Science (GIScience) and Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) in health services research and public health.
• Applications of spatial econometrics, geospatial causal inference, geographically weighted regression, and Bayesian spatial or spatiotemporal statistical models in health services research and public health.
• Applications of improved spatial accessibility methods and technologies to investigate the demand and supply of health services.
• Analysis of determinants (influencing factors) of health outcome disparities considering spatial or spatiotemporal nonstationarity.
• Applications of multisource earth and environmental data based on satellite remote sensing in health economics and health policy research.
• Health services and public health research incorporating individual-level data and macro-geospatial-level data, or based on frontier geospatial theories, such as the third law of geography.

Keywords: Health Econometrics, Spatial Econometrics, Spatial Health Statistics, Health and Medical Geography, Geographic Information Science

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic editors

Frequently asked questions

  • Frontiers' Research Topics are collaborative hubs built around an emerging theme.Defined, managed, and led by renowned researchers, they bring communities together around a shared area of interest to stimulate collaboration and innovation.

    Unlike section journals, which serve established specialty communities, Research Topics are pioneer hubs, responding to the evolving scientific landscape and catering to new communities.

  • The goal of Frontiers' publishing program is to empower research communities to actively steer the course of scientific publishing. Our program was implemented as a three-part unit with fixed field journals, flexible specialty sections, and dynamically emerging Research Topics, connecting communities of different sizes and maturity.

    Research Topics originate from the scientific community. Many of our Research Topics are suggested by existing editorial board members who have identified critical challenges or areas of interest in their field.

  • As an editor, Research Topics will help you build your journal, as well as your community, around emerging, cutting-edge research. As research trailblazers, Research Topics attract high-quality submissions from leading experts all over the world.

    A thriving Research Topic can potentially evolve into a new specialty section if there is sustained interest and a growing community around it.

  • Each Research Topic must be approved by the specialty chief editor, and it falls under the editorial oversight of our editorial boards, supported by our in-house research integrity team. The same standards and rigorous peer review processes apply to articles published as part of a Research Topic as for any other article we publish.

    In 2023, 80% of the Research Topics we published were edited or co-edited by our editorial board members, who are already familiar with their journal's scope, ethos, and publishing model. All other topics are guest edited by leaders in their field, each vetted and formally approved by the specialty chief editor.

  • Publishing your article within a Research Topic with other related articles increases its discoverability and visibility, which can lead to more views, downloads, and citations. Research Topics grow dynamically as more published articles are added, causing frequent revisiting, and further visibility.

    As Research Topics are multidisciplinary, they are cross-listed in several fields and section journals – increasing your reach even more and giving you the chance to expand your network and collaborate with researchers in different fields, all focusing on expanding knowledge around the same important topic.

    Our larger Research Topics are also converted into ebooks and receive social media promotion from our digital marketing team.

     

  • Frontiers offers multiple article types, but it will depend on the field and section journals in which the Research Topic will be featured. The available article types for a Research Topic will appear in the drop-down menu during the submission process.

    Check available article types here 

  • Yes, we would love to hear your ideas for a topic. Most of our Research Topics are community-led and suggested by researchers in the field. Our in-house editorial team will contact you to talk about your idea and whether you’d like to edit the topic. If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. 

    Suggest your topic here 

  • A team of guest editors (called topic editors) lead their Research Topic. This editorial team oversees the entire process, from the initial topic proposal to calls for participation, the peer review, and final publications.

    The team may also include topic coordinators, who help the topic editors send calls for participation, liaise with topic editors on abstracts, and support contributing authors. In some cases, they can also be assigned as reviewers.

  • As a topic editor (TE), you will take the lead on all editorial decisions for the Research Topic, starting with defining its scope. This allows you to curate research around a topic that interests you, bring together different perspectives from leading researchers across different fields and shape the future of your field. 

     

    You will choose your team of co-editors, curate a list of potential authors, send calls for participation and oversee the peer review process, accepting or recommending rejection for each manuscript submitted.

  • As a topic editor, you're supported at every stage by our in-house team. You will be assigned a single point of contact to help you on both editorial and technical matters. Your topic is managed through our user-friendly online platform, and the peer review process is supported by our industry-first AI review assistant (AIRA).

  • If you’re an early-stage researcher, we will offer you the opportunity to coordinate your topic, with the support of a senior researcher as the topic editor. This provides you with valuable editorial experience, improving your ability to critically evaluate research articles and enhancing your understanding of the quality standards and requirements for scientific publishing, as well as the opportunity to discover new research in your field, and expand your professional network.

  • Yes, certificates can be issued on request. We are happy to provide a certificate for your contribution to editing a successful Research Topic.

  • Research Topics thrive on collaboration and their multi-disciplinary approach around emerging, cutting-edge themes, attract leading researchers from all over the world.

  • As a topic editor, you can set the timeline for your Research Topic, and we will work with you at your pace. Typically, Research Topics are online and open for submissions within a few weeks and remain open for participation for 6 – 12 months. Individual articles within a Research Topic are published as soon as they are ready.

    Find out more about our Research Topics

  • Our fee support program ensures that all articles that pass peer review, including those published in Research Topics, can benefit from open access – regardless of the author's field or funding situation.

    Authors and institutions with insufficient funding can apply for a discount on their publishing fees. A fee support application form is available on our website.

  • In line with our mission to promote healthy lives on a healthy planet, we do not provide printed materials. All our articles and ebooks are available under a CC-BY license, so you can share and print copies.

     

Impact

  • 20kTopic views
  • 13kArticle views
  • 5,990Article downloads
View impact