SCOPE workshop on Spatial Risk Management Tool
On September 28th, 2023, the Interactive Technologies Institute joined a workshop on Spatial Data Science co-organised by Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) in Lisbon. This event was a significant milestone within the SCOPE project, aiming to demonstrate the successful use of Spatial Data Science in providing a functional software prototype for spatial risk management during epidemic events. The software would offer daily updates on risk indicators’ maps, aiding Public Health physicians in future epidemic/pandemic decision-making.
The collaboration with CERENA and ITI research units from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) enabled the participation of local, regional, and national-level public health physicians to interact with the prototype. The workshop allowed them to explore and analyse spatial data and provided a platform for identifying potential improvements based on their professional experience, evaluating its utility, feasibility in healthcare services, and potential associated costs.
Workshop Participants
The event brought together a diverse group of participants, including the project’s technical team and 39 public health physicians representing various Health Center Clusters in the country. Also present were representatives from the Northern, Central, and Algarve Regional Health Administrations, along with the Directorate-General of Health. The SCOPE project, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, aims to showcase the successful utilization of Spatial Data Science in providing a functional software prototype for spatial risk management during epidemic events. This will equip public health administration with new resources for preparing and responding to future epidemic situations and supporting decision-making processes.
SCOPE Project Team
The SCOPE project was developed by a multidisciplinary team comprising data scientists, geostatisticians, computer scientists, and management experts, primarily from IST. It also includes epidemiologists and public health physicians from INSA, with institutional support from the Directorate-General of Health and the Portuguese Institute for Blood and Transplantation as potential end-users of the developed tools.
Key Features of the Functional Software Prototype
The functional software prototype, known as the Dashboard, will provide daily updates on health indicator maps and their associated spatial prediction uncertainties. By leveraging historical data from the COVID-19 pandemic, it will offer fresh insights into the spatial spread of the disease over time. Spatial Data Science allows for extracting relevant information concerning infectious disease spatial patterns and predicting spatial-temporal transmission dynamics and risk management interventions’ impact, incorporating geographical factors and analysing health inequalities based on geography.
