GIS-Based Drug Abuse Monitoring System

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): To address the NIDA need for state-of-the-art GIS tools for more efficient monitoring of drug abuse incidents in the United States, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop the novel GIS-based Drug Abuse Monitoring (GISDAM) system, based on a combination of POC's innovative approach for indicator relationship inference using methods of data mining, and standard GIS means of spatial analysis. GISDAM is based on two unique POC innovations: new algorithms for automatic spatial object classification and relationship inference based on using data mining approaches to generate learning parameters, and a novel ESRI ArcObjects extension software for indirect indicator generation. The proposed GISDAM system offers (1) graphic spatial analysis of drug abuse patterns and trends based on multiple layer representation of different epidemiological indicators; (2) extrapolation of pattern and trend analysis results, from selected disjointed communities to the entire U.S. territory; (3) the capability to infer new relationships between drug abuse epidemic characteristics and different relevant indicators. GISDAM is an extension of ArcGIS and consists of three main ActiveX DLLs, providing: (1) raw data import into the MS Access database, with the transformation of medical and police records, demographic data, survey questionnaires, etc. into MDB files; (2) prediction (inference) of direct indicators based on indirect indicators, through automatic classification with learning based on data mining methods; (3) off-the-shelf software functionality wrappers, offering a set of functions invoked by clicking on toolbar or menu elements accessible directly from ArcMap. The Phase I prototype will implement basic GISDAM functionality based on small datasets using MS Access. In Phase II, POC will develop a full functionality software prototype based on a production DBMS, such as Oracle or MS SQL Server with remote data access. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: E Drug abuse in the United States negatively influences public health, causing enormous human (for instance, 26,000 people died in 2002) and material damage, and lowers people's capacity for work. POC proposes the development of computer software based on modern geographic information systems, which will allow the effective monitoring of drug abuse patterns and trends to develop adequate medical and social measures for drug abuse prevention.