The Indian Council of Medical Research's (ICMR's) Health System Research Cell (HSRC) is sponsoring a workshop for GIS users on “Geographic Information System (GIS) and Public Health: Practice of a good mapping” in National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai from September 6 to 8 & September 13 to15. NIE Chennai is organising the two workshops which are designed to offer comprehensive guidance of those who are using Geographic Information system (GIS) for public health related activity in their work place.

The two workshops aim to provide an interactive forum to the GIS users who have been engaged in addressing the use of GIS in various fields. The meeting is expected to create an excellent convergence of the perspectives of those with specific interests. The deliberations during the conference will help learning objectives like the quality and promotion of a spatial data set infrastructure at a micro level. Propagation of guidelines in producing good quality disease maps with specification of map accuracy, proper usage of the map analysis and effective usage of the GIS technology in health research.

The two day workshop is open for al the GIS users, health care providers/public health practitioners/researchers from government and non government organisations/institutions actively involved in health research. Fifteen participants per batch will be selected from various states and the selected participants will be informed within 10 days.

ICMR an apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world. The Council promotes biomedical research in the country through intramural as well as extramural research. Over the decades, the base of extramural research and also its strategies have been expanded by the Council.