Esri Honours Dartmouth Atlas Founder with Making a Difference Award

John E. Wennberg, MD, MPH, founder of the Dartmouth Atlas, received the 2013 Esri Making a Difference Award at the plenary session of Esri’s Annual International User’s Conference in San Diego, USA, on 8 June. For more than 20 years, the Dartmouth Atlas has been documenting glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States.

The Dartmouth Atlas uses Medicare data to provide comprehensive information and analysis about national, regional and local markets, as well as individual hospitals and their affiliated physicians.

These reports and the research upon which they are based have helped policymakers, the media, health care analysts and others improve their understanding of the efficiency and effectiveness of the country's health care system. This valuable data forms the foundation for many of the ongoing efforts to improve health and health systems across the USA.

Dr Wennberg’s work has transformed the way the United States understands health care, said Jack Dangermond, president of Esri. His analyses and ideas are the foundation for national health care reform across the world, and the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care is one of the most significant contributions to understanding the geographic variability of health care expenditures, quality and outcomes. Dr Wennberg is truly a man of great courage and steadfast determination, and Dangermond stated he could not agree more that, in health care,"geography is destiny!".

The Esri Making a Difference Award honours people or organisations that have used GIS to bring about meaningful change in the world. Recipients use GIS as a framework to understand problems and successfully meet important challenges. They are leaders that value collaboration and have a sense of shared responsibility for society or the environment.

Dr Wennberg commented his colleagues and himself are grateful for this recognition; Esri GIS tools are critical in studies of the geography of medical care, helping to sketch the landscape of health care delivery in the USA and address such questions as why care is so different in Minneapolis than it is in Miami.

The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care is based at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice.