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摘要
%26quot;Geocoding (street address matching or assignment of latitude and longitude) will be the basis for data linkage and analysis in the 21st century. The versatility of GIS supports the exploration of spatial relationships, patterns, and trends that otherwise would go unnoticed.%26quot; 每 US Healthy People 2010 Objectives (item 23-3 每 http://www.healthypeople.gov/document/html/volume2/23phi.htm#_Toc491137862 webcite)Geography plays a major role in understanding the dynamics of health, and the causes and spread of disease [1]. The classic public health triad composed of man, agent/vehicle and environment emphasises the importance of geographic location (environment or space where we live) in health and disease. Interactions within this triad can also change with time.Today%26apos;s health planners aim at developing health policy and services that address geographic and social inequalities in health, and therefore should benefit from evidence-based approaches that can be used to investigate spatial aspects of health policy and practice, and evaluate geographic equity (or inequity) in health service provision [2].According to the US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), geographic location is a key feature of 80每90% of all government data [3]. The same can be also said about government data in other countries, including data generated by the health sector in the UK. This locational or spatial reference is a %26quot;main key%26quot; in the transformation of data into information, and for linking and integrating many health and other datasets from disparate sources covering same and contiguous locations [4].Unlike other resources like employees or funds, spatial data do not suffer any wear and tear from repeated use. On the contrary, reusing data increases the possibilities for improving the content quality of data collections and gaining new insights by linking and exploring the relationships between the different datasets that makeup the big picture [4].This implies the need to develop applicatio
