Dr. Niko Yiannakoulias, Assistant Professor, School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Niko’s primary research interests are in geo-computation, environmental and public health surveillance methodology, the geography of disease diagnosis, injury epidemiology and transportation and health.
Niko Yiannakoulias was raised in Western Canada, and earned his PhD from the University of Alberta in 2006. Much of Niko’s early work was concerned with understanding non-epidemiological influences on geographic patterns of disease. In this work he showed that patterns in the diagnosis of conditions such as cerebrovascular disease, Parkinsons disease, asthma and multiple sclerosis are influenced by a range of non-epidemiological factors, including: physician workload, the institutional environment, availability of certain equipment, age and sex of practitioner, level of rurality and migration patterns following diagnosis.
One of Niko’s current areas of interest involves using space-time geography to reduce motor-vehicle collisions. In one application, he modelled the paths of different transportation agents, and then observed how geographically-specific changes in scheduling can reduce interaction between them in time and space. Another of his recent projects is concerned with mapping the risk of cycling collisions using exposure data estimated from commuter transportation models. Niko’s lab is currently developing software for cluster detection and health region districting that uses concepts in graph theory to enhance search efficiency.
Niko has published in a variety of journals in public health and social medicine, including: Social Science and Medicine, Health Place, Neurology, and Cerebrovascular Diseases and Public Health. His research has been supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Niko may be contacted at yiannan@univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca
See also: http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/geo/faculty/yiannakoulias/index.html
Updated: October 2011
Health and Medical Geography 