Health and Medical Geography

Check out the results here!

Dear members:

The AAG Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group (HMGSG) is looking for nominations to fill upcoming vacancies. This year we are seeking nominations for the following positions and will hold elections during the 2018 AAG annual meeting in New Orleans:

– 1 Vice-Chair

– 1 At-Large Board Member

– 1 Graduate Student Board Member

The Vice-Chair serves a one-year term and transitions to Chair in the second year. The At-Large and Student board members each serve a two-year term.

All HMGSG members are eligible and encouraged to nominate candidates (HMGSG members only) for these positions. Self-nominations are accepted. Before your nomination, please contact the nominee to assure they are willing and available to serve if elected. Attendance at the AAG meeting by nominees is not required but is encouraged.

If you are interested in serving in any of these positions, please send an email to Kirsten Beyer (kbeyer@mcw.edu) indicating the position of interest and a half-page bio for circulation to the membership at the HMGSG business meeting. The deadline for submissions is April 2, 2018. Please use “Nomination for HMGSG positions” as the subject of your email. Your half-page bio-sketch should include your full name, title and degree, institution, and research and teaching interests. Nominees will be invited to introduce themselves to the membership at the HMGSG Business Meeting directly prior to the election. Nominations and introductions can also be made in person at the meeting directly prior to the election, but bios for these candidates will not be circulated.

Thank you for your support of the HMGSG Specialty Group.

-Kirsten

Newsletter

Abstract Submission Deadline: October 25, 2018
Sponsored by the Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group, Association of American Geographers

Description:
The Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group (HMGSG) of AAG invites current undergraduate and graduate students to submit their work to the specialty group’s annual Peter Gould Student Paper Competition. The competition is meant to promote written scholarship by students across the field. A $100 prize will be awarded in each of two categories: 1) undergraduate students, and 2) graduate students (Master’s and Doctoral).

Please see attachment below for complete details!

HMGSG_Gould_announcement_2018

Call for Papers

If you are interested in joining this session, please email your PIN, title, abstract, and contact information to the following organizers: Michael R. Desjardins (UNC-Charlotte; mdesjar2@uncc.edu) and Alexander Hohl (UNC-Charlotte; ahohl@uncc.edu). Please note that we will not accept submissions after the AAG deadline.

Description

Advanced computational capabilities that emerged through continuous technological development have transformed many scientific disciplines, including the domain of health and medical geography. Today, scientists tackle computational challenges that used to be virtually impossible to solve, because 1) our ability to collect and store health-related data has improved substantially, and 2) analytical methods for solving scientific problems can now be applied on a massive scale. Therefore, the spatiotemporal analysis and modelling of health-related issues has experienced and driven fundamental changes.

The goal of this session is to create a platform for presenting and stimulating discussion about: accomplishments and remaining challenges of intersecting health and medical geography with cyberinfrastructure within a spatiotemporal context.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

1. Disease Mapping: spatial and/or spatiotemporal analysis and visualization;
2. Disparities in health care accessibility;
3. Stochastic methods for assessing the significance of observed disease patterns;
4. Spatially explicit disease modeling (retrospective or prospective);
5. The use of cyber-enabled technologies (e.g., high performance computing, cloud computing) to analyze complex and massive spatiotemporal data for the discovery of relationships between health and environment.

Sponsor Groups: Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group, Cyberinfrastructure Specialty Group, Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group

Discussant: Dr. Xun Shi (Dartmouth)

Less than a month until Geomed 2017 in the beautiful Portuguese city of Porto (Sept. 7-9)! Former HMGSG chair Dr. Eric Delmelle (UNC-Charlotte) and current co-webmaster Michael Desjardins (UNC-Charlotte) will be attending and presenting their research. If you are a current HMGSG member and will be presenting or just attending, please send an email to mdesjar2@uncc.edu. Hope to see some of you there!

Dear members of the Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group,

At this AAG, our specialty group will sponsor 72 sessions. Although it is not possible to list them all in this post, I would like to remind you of some key events that I hope you will attend. I especially invite you to the Melinda Mede Distinguished Lecture on Friday afternoon (featuring Dr. Mei-Po Kwan), followed by our first reception (with adult beverages and snacks).

Thursday April 6^th

• From 9:00 AM – 9:40 AM in Tremont, Marriott, First Floor in Suffolk, Marriott, Third Floor. Peter Gould Undergraduate Student Paper Competition (last two papers in the session)

Friday April 7^th morning

• From 8:00 AM – 9:40 AM in Tremont, Marriott, First Floor
  Peter Gould Graduate Student Paper Competition
• From 11:50 AM – 1:10 PM in Simmons, Marriott, Third Floor
  Business Meeting

Friday April 7^th afternoon

• From 1:20 PM – 3:00 PM in Room 310, Hynes, Third Level
  Emerging Scholars in Health and Medical Geography featuring Dr. Kirsten M. M. Beyer and Dr. Paul Mkandawire
• At 3 PM directly followed by
  The Melinda Meade Distinguished Lecture featuring Dr. Mei-Po Kwan also in Room 310 Hynes (same place)
• directly followed by
  Health and Medical Geography Reception (same place) also in Room 310 Hynes

At our business meeting, we will recognize recipients of the Peter Gould Paper Competition, the Jacques May Thesis/Dissertation Prize, recipients of the Melinda Meade travel awards, awardees for the Emerging Scholar(s) in Health and Medical Geography, and the Melinda Meade Distinguished Scholar. Finally, we will hold elections for the position of vice-chair, board members and student representatives.

We are saddened to announce the passing of Dr. John M. Hunter.

There will be 72 sessions at AAG that were organized by members of HMGSG!  Stay tuned for details regarding session topics, locations, and times.