MapData Sciences Pty Ltd (MDS) is helping the Faculty of Medicine at the University of NSW (UNSW) with their role as a leader in cancer research. The Faculty is studying the effect of geographic variation on radiotherapy use, by understanding the distance between a patient’s home and the nearest treatment facility.
Radiotherapy is an essential element of cancer treatment and contributes to the cure or palliation of many cancer patients. Radiotherapy utilisation is affected by different factors including the location of the nearest radiotherapy facility and the distance between that facility and the patient’s residence.
Prof Michael Barton, the chair of Radiation Oncology and lead researcher at the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, says "the study conducted by Dr Gabriel Gabriel will focus on "The effect of geographic variation on radiotherapy utilisation in NSW". This is very challenging because it is the first study to incorporate the Geographic Information Systems [GIS] into our cancer research."
During the past year the Faculty of Medicine explored different ways of geocoding patient and facility addresses. From these geocoded locations, they could calculate the road distances between radiotherapy facilities and residential addresses of patients diagnosed with cancer. MDS’ QuickLocate geocoding software and RoadNet with routing attribute mapping data assists in performing the geocoding and consequently the calculation of road distance.
"MDS was selected because their software fulfils our research requirement, because of the competitive nature of their offer, their willingness to support our good cause "Cancer Research" and their professional yet friendly staff"
"MDS met the expectations for our specific research and have committed to work with us as we continue to use these products" adds Dr Gabriel.
"The study shows the collaboration between UNSW, the Public Sector Mapping Agency – Distribution (PSMA) and MDS. I would like to take this opportunity to thank PSMA for providing their valuable support to the research and their extended support to MDS, essential in providing the technology the study required." adds Dr Gabriel.
MapData Sciences has been developing and hosting online digital mapping applications for over 11 years as well as supplying mapping data to other online mapping providers and for in-house GIS development projects. In addition, MDS provides consulting, systems integration and route optimisation services.
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