Application of Geographic Information System in Health:A Systematic Review in Iran

Geographic information system is a modern technology that helps to make sound policy and decisions to promote patients’ health. This systematic review was carried out to determine the application of GISs in health in Iran.
Material & In the current study, English and Persian databases were systematically searched using predefined key terms. All relevant studies utilizing GISs in the field of health in Iran were retrieved. Then, a data extraction form that its reliability was approved by experts was applied to extract the data. Data regarding GIS capabilities, the sources of data used, and the fields that GISs were applied for were extracted from the papers. Data were analyzed and reported using descriptive statistics.
Totally, 33 out of 119 retrieved articles were selected as eligible and reviewed by the authors. The subject area of almost half of the studies was noninfectious diseases. Cancer (21%) was the most common disease analyzed by GIS in Iran. Eighty-five percent of the studies used mapping and locating capabilities of GIS software.
The use of GIS in health in Iran is still in the preliminary stage. GIS as an applied software is considered as a valuable tool to present geographical distribution of diseases and produce geospatial data to improve health and health care systems.