Dear everyone, I had a meeting with Department of Health (DOH) IMS division on the possibility of collaborating with the OSM-PH community. No clear plans yet on the collaboration but I would like to put forward the discussions in this list.
= Overview = Basically, DOH intends to improve their database for the location of health facilities in the country. They will use the data on several information management of the Department. At the moment, they have several database developed in various projects. Each db uses a different system but one thing they lack is a uniform geographic identifier. An example of the db is available in the Unified Health Management Information System portal [0]. This online portal lists ~21,000 health facilities all over the country. At the moment they were able to geocode ~4,000 locations [2] (~20%). = What they need from OSM = A couple of ideas that were discussed are: - Verify the location of the 4,000 geocoded facilities in the existing OSM data. Right now, there isn't any clear evaluation on the accuracy of the locations (a process of Q/A is now being developed). Some facilities are actually in Sulu Sea! Check out the southern part of Negros island [2]. - Fill in the gaps. the IMS division have limited funds to individually verify and take GPS readings of each facility. OSM data can possibly fill in the gaps. Using the Overpass turbo [3], I was able to check that we have ~1,100 amenity=hospital ways and nodes. Note that some maybe duplicates and I have not included other health facilities like barangay health centers (tagged as amenity=clinic clinic=public [4]). - Ask the community to map more health facilities. The only additional tag they want included is the Health Facility Code (an alphanumeric code similar to NSCB's PSGC [5]). This code will allow them to link the OSM geometry into their health facility db. - Train DOH staff to edit OSM. - Build some easy to use tools to collect data in the field. = Pending issues = As with most government data, they are available only on a non-commercial use. Specifically, the DOH generated locations. For the other information in the online db, they are OK with public access without restrictions. This will be in conflict with OSM's ODbL. A workaround discussed was to separate the DOH db with OSM's data points. No public db will be distributed that integrates both data sources. Is this in compliance with the ODbL? If not, what are other ways in which we can use OSM data in relation to DOH's plans. Everything I've listed are open to discussions. I included here two people from DOH to keep them aware of the discussions. (@ Steeve and Mark, please subscribe to our mailinglist [6] to keep track of the discussions) Regardless of what DOH intends to do, I encourage everyone to include health facilities in your own list of things to map. Thanks! --- [0] http://uhmis1.doh.gov.ph/UnifiedHMIS/ [1] http://uhmis1.doh.gov.ph/doh_facility/rfacilitieslist.php?cmd=resetall [2] http://maps.doh.gov.ph/facilities.html [3] http://overpass-turbo.eu/ [4] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-ph/2010-March/001872.html [5] http://www.nscb.gov.ph/activestats/psgc/default.asp [6] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ph -- cheers, maning ------------------------------------------------------ "Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/ blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/ ------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ talk-ph mailing list talk-ph@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ph
