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2004 Health GIS Conference Proceedings Abstract
Comprehensive GIS Application for West Nile Virus Surveillance Author(s): Dave Stinchcomb, Texas Department of Health General methods for geomasking patient street addresses to protect confidentiality have been described, but there are few discussions of how to apply these methods. This paper presents alternatives for applying geomasking techniques and compares their relative advantages. An example of a procedure for geomasking within a GIS environment is provided. Working within a GIS has the advantage of being able to avoid moving points to unrealistic locations (for example, into a body of water). In addition, the procedure provides a way to adjust the masking distance based on population density to more effectively mask patient identities across a wide range of urban and rural areas. Finally, we show how this procedure could be automated using available scripting tools. |
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