Making sense out of all the health data out there is daunting -- even for the seasoned health data junkie. A new app for the iPad called Health Indicators now brings consumers one step closer to seeing health data about where they live -- the geomedicine...

To me, better health means eating better and getting more exercise! Grocery shopping is something most of us do at least once a week. I recently heard a travel host talking about how great it is to be close to three local bakeries, several butcher shops and half dozen local...

The emerging field of geomedicine can't get moving fast enough for many of us who fear the threat of cancer -- particularly of the breast or prostate. In a recently published study that used the geographic microscope, as I like to refer to the geographic analysis of disease,...

Over the past year I have introduced you to various websites that have been created by government agencies, newspapers and health research organizations to help us better understand our local environments -- from water quality and lead poisoning in children, to school conditions and local cancer cases. My aim was...

The health and medical literature is filled with thousands of studies that link poverty to health status, especially among children and young adults -- the evidence says that a "poor" start in life is a major health determinant -- as the public health experts refer to it. Poverty is also...

I would wager that there is not much water quality information in your medical record unless, of course, you have been treated for water borne disease. Most of us who live in the U.S. don't give water quality a second thought -- but you might be surprised to learn how...

A number of important studies over the last several years have linked children's respiratory health problems with high densities of vehicular roadway traffic. Using modern geographic mapping techniques, health researchers have concluded that the proximity of roadways to places where children spend a great deal of their day experience higher...

Our interest in knowing more about our environment and what is happening around us got a big lift this month from the launch of a web site that features cancer data from the New York State Health Department's Cancer Registry. If you don't live in the state of...

Did you grow up in a house that was built before 1978? This story is about how one State's progressive Community Affairs Department is linking geographical information to potential environmental health risk information to help protect young children. If you're pregnant or have children or grandchildren younger than six who...

Over the three months that my TedMed talk on geomedicine video has been available, many interesting comments have been generated -- not just in response to this Huffington Post blog but to the many viewers of my video presentation circulating on the Internet.

A recent interview on...

What do Hippocrates and Ethan Berke have in common, besides 2,400 years difference in their ages?Well, for starters they are both physicians -- Hippocrates of course lived in about 400 BC and Ethan Berke lives in the present. They both understand the direct connection between the "places" in your life...

In 2001 I was hit by a train. Okay, not a real train but it might as well have been! My train was a heart attack. When it happened I thought to myself, "why me", "why now", "why here?" I thought I was in good health. I had followed the...