Geocoding Health Data: The Use of Geographic Codes in Cancer Prevention and Control, Research, and Practice – Edited by Gerard Rushton, Marc P. Armstrong, Josephine Gittler, Barry R. Greene, Claire E. Pavlik, Michele M. West, and Dale L. Zimmerman

Geocoding Health Data: The Use of Geographic Codes in Cancer Prevention and Control, Research, and Practice is a comprehensive exposition of the process of geocoding cancer data and utilizing these geocodes to perform spatial analysis for the benefit of research and public health. This volume focuses on the use of cancer-related heath data and is specifically designed to be a reference for cancer registries, however, the principles and applications are easily transferable for use in other disciplines. This book evolved from a project supported by the U.S. Center for Disease Control that sought to assess issues from “the geocoding of cancer incidences and their subsequent use.” This project was largely directed by researchers from the University of Iowa and involved the collaboration of other specialists in the field of geocoding in relation to heath applications. An April 2004 meeting of these collaborators led to the present volume. Geocoding Health Data is composed of 13 chapters, which introduce geocoding and detail many of the beneficial uses of geocoding as well as describing some of the corresponding challenges. An Appendix follows the chapters and provides a listing of laws and regulations that pertain to mandatory cancer reporting and cancer registries for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Chapter 1 is the introduction to the book; it explains its scope and briefly touches upon many of the topics discussed in more detail in the following chapters including the purposes of geocoding health data, privacy and confidentiality concerns, spatial analysis, measuring distance and the role of cancer registries in public health. In chapter 2, the process of and materials required for geocoding are laid out while common positional errors are also described. Chapter 3 pertains to geocoding to the ZIP code level and assesses the benefits and drawbacks of utilizing this scale for spatial analysis and also provides some research examples. Chapter 4 compares spatially continuous prostate cancer maps derived from both upscaling and downscaling methods of geocoded cancer cases. Chapter 5 details some of the most common errors that lead to unmatched cases in geocoding and offers suggestions for efficient solutions. Chapter 6 describes current state cancer registry practices from a selection of diverse states ranging from the densely populated New Jersey to the sparsely populated Alaska and provides some insight into the future practices of geocoding at cancer registries. Confidentiality protection is covered in chapter 7 and several techniques for concealing patient identities in maps and Transactions in GIS, 2009, 13(3): 335–337