Mapping Camden's health

UCL's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) and Department of Geography have been awarded a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) to work with Camden Primary Care Trust.

The project is being led by Professor Paul Longley (Geography) and was arranged by Duncan Bull (UCL KTP Office). It will use geographic information systems (GIS) to encourage greater health awareness in the London Borough of Camden.

The project will develop postcode-level health profiles of Camden's population to enable health professionals to target specific groups according to their needs. UCL's GIS expertise in CASA will be used to map and profile the many disparate elements influencing health, including socio-economic and lifestyle factors.

The London Borough of Camden, which is on UCL's doorstep has great inequalities in health, with affluent households located beside deprived estates. Recent interventions to improve health and reduce inequalities in these areas have met with only modest success but it is expected that the new programme will address many of these problems; for example, it is estimated that there are currently 50,000 smokers in Camden, a figure the Camden Health Trust hopes to reduce by 5% over three years. This reduction could lead to 100 less hospital admissions and 600 less GP consultations per year for related illnesses, resulting in total savings to the trust of approximately £150,000. The mapping and analysis techniques used by UCL will be instrumental in achieving these figures.

It is hoped that the project will also enable and encourage data sharing between UCL's other local agencies such as the police, social services and education. The partnership is being funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and is worth more than £330,000.

To find out more about CASA or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, use the links at the below.

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Links:
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
CASA