Medical Geography

Medical geography applies the concepts and techniques of geography to the study of disease and health. It is one of the most practical subdisciplines of human geography in that it seeks to address issues that are clearly of vital concern to people in their daily lives. It is concerned with issues such as the spatial distribution of breast cancer mortality rates, the pattern of diffusion of influenza, the effect of people's movements on the spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), the geography of toxic hazards, why hospitals are located where they are, and comparisons of the distances people must travel to primary healthcare in urban and rural areas. Although medical geography traces its origins to the Greek physician Hippocrates (ca. 460–377 BC), it only became a recognized field of study during the 18th century. Its recent flourishing began with the publication of Jacques May's series of global disease and nutrition maps during the early 1950s.

Medical geographers examine health and disease in the context of both a variety of cultures around the world and a variety of physical environments. They must be familiar with other fields of study within the natural sciences, the social sciences, medicine, and public health. Depending on their specific interests, those aspiring to become medical geographers should have a thorough grounding in cultural ecology, climatology, virology, epidemiology, health policy, biostatistics, anthropology, and geographic information systems (GIS), among other areas. Traditionally, medical geography has been divided into two main subcategories, disease ecology and healthcare delivery, although these two concerns are interrelated. A third subcategory, spatial analysis, always has been vital to medical geography and has become more so with the use of GIS.