Brian Altonen, MPH, MS

Phil Locke’s article "Are there geographic "hotspots" for shaking babies?" (http://wrongfulconvictionsblog.org/2013/12/15/are-there-geographic-hotspots-for-shaking-babies-shaken-baby-syndrome/) provides us with important insight into this growing national public health problem. 

The above map in this figure is the nationalpopulationhealthgrid (NPHG) mapping technique developed for mapping any medical statistic or number down to the small area level.  Beneath the NPHG map is the US map by states produced by Lauryn Schroeder of The Medill Justice Project at Northwestern University (http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/experience/bsj/exclusives/medill-justice-project.html).

NPHG allows us to identify small areas of high incidence for any medical diagnoses, episode or event.   Exact locations within each of the states noted as high risk were reassessed down to the town/city level using this innovative mapping technique. 

Important to note here is that NPHG displays its results in 3D, and can also be used to generate rotating videos of your results, impressive for any public speaking or upper level management presentation.

Minus the videos, NPHG can produce hundreds to thousands of maps per day, depending upon your study.  The rotational 3D images used to make the videos could be produced at a rate of 15,000 to 20,000 (15-20 videos) per day.   At this speed, we can now report on dozens to hundreds of metrics per week spatially, either locally or at the national level, and at any pre-determined subpopulation level (age, gender, SES, etc.).  

There are no limits to the use for this spatial modeling tool.