How does where we live influence our state of health?
In collaboration with the HUG Population Epidemiology Unit, the GIRAPH laboratory(Geographic Information Research and Analysis in Population Health) laboratory brings together a number of scientists from major institutions in the Lake Geneva region, including the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). These researchers from complementary fields are working together to understand how certain diseases and their risk factors are distributed over a given area, by analysing spatial, demographic, socio-economic, environmental and health data.
This spatial epidemiology approach, used as part of the studies in which you are taking part, enables priority prevention areas to be identified locally and encourages the development of targeted interventions tailored to the population living there.
In the third third episode in a new video series produced by EPFLDr Stéphane Joost, co-founder of the GIRAPH laboratory with Prof Idris Guessous, and a researcher in the Population Epidemiology Unit, explains that it is possible to identify certain geographical pockets ('clusters') that are more exposed than others to the risk of developing certain diseases. These are linked, for example, to environmental factors such as air or noise pollution.
Applied to the field of medicine, this approach at the crossroads of geography and public health is called Geomedicine. It makes it possible to intervene more effectively on the ground and to guide current and future public health policies. On 14 November 2023, a free public conference (registration required) (organised by Prof. Idris Guessous and Dr. Stéphane Joost will welcome Prof. Lance Walker from the Rollins Institute of Public Health, Emory University (Atlanta, USA), to present recent applications and discoveries in Public Health Geomedicine.
