New Zealand Ministry of Health launches Health Intelligence site on InstantAtlas

InstantAtlas is being used in New Zealand to present regional health and incidence statistics as online, interactive graphics – this helps public health professionals spot issues and trends and better allocate health resources

EDINBURGH UK - 13 July 2007 - GeoWise, a provider of software for the clear graphical presentation of location-based statistical data, has today announced that on 2nd July 2007, Public Health Intelligence (PHI), the epidemiology group of the New Zealand Ministry of Health launched its site, PHIOnline, using InstantAtlas.

The objective of the site is to make health and health related data more accessible, improve communication of health issues and support key health policy and resource decisions. It was launched by New Zealand's health minister, the Hon. Pete Hodgson and is supported by the Director-General of Health, Stephen McKernan.

PHIOnline makes available a range of time-based public health data, region by region. Via InstantAtlas, statistics on issues such as cancer rates, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and others, as well as educational achievement and population concentrations can be viewed as interactive, eye-catching graphics. This makes it easy to spot relationships, patterns and trends and to make regional comparisons.

"InstantAtlas is enabling us to support health professionals, planners and policy makers with the intelligence they need to make important decisions on health service provision in New Zealand," said Dr. Barry Borman, epidemiologist and manager of Public Health Intelligence,. "Our PHIOnline site uses InstantAtlas to make large volumes of statistics much more accessible. Interactive graphics help decision makers interpret issues and trends. The clear visuals stimulate interest, investigation and support confident action to improve public health. User feedback has been excellent."

Working with the Ministry of Health, InstantAtlas was selected by Mr Dyfed Thomas, an adviser on geospatial analysis and project manager of PHIOnline. His decision was based on ease of use for the ministry and users and overall value for money. He considered the use of various Geographical Information System (GIS) tools, but found these too complex for his intended audiences, over-supplied with functionality for his needs and very expensive compared with InstantAtlas.

"InstantAtlas is now used around the globe to make regional statistics on public health and local government accessible to decision makers and the public," commented Mike Forster, managing director of GeoWise. "We welcome the Ministry of Health to our rapidly growing international client-base."

About GeoWise & InstantAtlas

GeoWise develops and sells InstantAtlas a powerful software tool for the graphical presentation of location-based statistical data which makes local and regional patterns easy to see and explore. It allows templates to be used to present spatial and temporal indicators and statistics as eye-catching, interactive area profiles, atlases, dashboards, and performance reports. The GeoWise team has a unique blend of skills in design, software, geography and statistics.