Geospatial Health Research Group

News and Events

Crowdsourced Data Could Help Map Urban Food Deserts

July 2020

New research from The University of Texas at Dallas suggests food deserts might be more prevalent in the U.S. than the numbers reported in government estimates. In a feasibility study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, scholars found that the methods used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to identify areas with low access to healthy food are often outdated and narrow in scope. Their findings indicate that crowdsourced information gathered from mobile apps such as Yelp could help provide more accurate real-time representation of food deserts in impoverished communities. Find the full story here: https://www.utdallas.edu/news/social-sciences/food-deserts-study-2020/


Old Mobile Phone Technology May Help Curb Traffic Deaths in Nigeria

February 2020

Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center are investigating new ways to use old mobile phone technology to help first responders in developing countries reduce the time it takes to transport traffic accident victims to hospitals. Part of the research involves using data collection methods to identify areas of large cities that are prone to traffic-related injuries but lack information to allocate limited resources optimally. Dr. Kim and Dr. Fiemu Nwariaku, professor of surgery and associate dean of global health at UT Southwestern, are co-principal investigators on a $427,000, two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center (grant R21TW010991) to promote health across the globe. Kim and Nwariaku will spend the next two years developing ways to leverage existing, low-cost mobile phone technology in Lagos, Nigeria, to help roadway accident victims. Find the full story here: https://www.utdallas.edu/news/science-technology/traffic-mortality-nigeria-2020/


Study Ties Fire Station Proximity Firmly to Prevention of Injuries

July 2019

Does living closer to a fire station equate to a higher level of safety? It’s a commonly held belief, and now Dr. Kim has gathered empirical evidence that does indeed support that assertion. This study aimed to measure spatial accessibility to fire protection services at the census block group level and to examine whether it is associated with unintentional residential fire-related injuries. Find the full story here: https://www.utdallas.edu/news/research/fire-station-location-study-2019/?WT.mc_id=NewsHomePage


Dr. Dohyeong Kim Shared His Expertise in Public Health with the Ministry of Santa Fe, Argentine

October 2018

Luego de la visita de la Ph.D. Deborah Carroll (University of Central Florida), quien abrió este ciclo con su conferencia sobre “Federalismo”, fue el turno de Dohyeong Kim, quien expuso sus ideas sobre Salud, con el objetivo de generar espacios de aprendizaje y discusión en el ámbito académico, y con actores del sector público y sector privado. El Ciclo de Charlas cuenta con el auspicio de la Embajada de los EEUU y el apoyo del Gobierno de la Provincia de Santa Fe. Además, durante su visita, el catedrático fue recibido por autoridades del Ministerio de Salud, visitó centros de Salud y organismos de la ciudad y la provincia como el Hospital José María Cullen, el LIF (Laboratorio Industrial Farmacéutico) y el CEMAFE (Centro de Especialidades Médicas Ambulatorias de Santa Fe). Find the full story here: https://www.ucsf.edu.ar/el-prof-dohyeong-kim-disertara-sobre-salud-en-el-ciclo-de-conferencias-sobre-politicas-publicas/


Research Team Assesses Air Pollution Risks with New Method

September 2018

New UT Dallas research highlights the importance of using the right lens to get a complete picture of a public health problem. Dr. Kim and colleagues wanted to take a closer look at how pollution and allergic diseases were related in Seoul, South Korea. The image came into better focus when they incorporated a spatial statistical method called spatial autocorrelation, which allowed researchers to look at the degree to which pollution levels and allergic diseases were related in much greater detail and in smaller geographic areas of the city over five years. Find the full story here: https://www.utdallas.edu/news/social-sciences/research-team-assesses-air-pollution-risks-with-ne/


Researchers Pinpoint Effective Locations for Surveillance Cameras

July 2018

Like in real estate, the most important factors in preventing crime with video cameras are location, location, location, new UT Dallas research has found. The study, published in the June edition of the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, was designed to help the South Korean government determine the most effective sites for video surveillance cameras to prevent crime. Dr. Kim and his co-authors received funding from the Korean Institute of Criminology, a national crime and criminal justice research institute, to support the research. Find the full story here: https://utdallas.edu/news/research/researchers-pinpoint-effective-locations-for-surve/


First Inaugural UTD Health Policy Speaker Series with Dr. Edward Yelin from USCF

November 2017

The first inaugural UTD speaker series is held at 4-5pm on November 30th, 2017. Dr. Edward H. Yelin, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at the University of California at San Francisco. His health services research program focuses on the impact of changes in the health care system for persons with severe chronic diseases and in the sources of health disparities in access to care and long-term outcomes of disease. He is currently completing research from a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator in Health Policy Award on the causes of how poverty translates into poorer health outcomes. He presents the findings from the research with a title of “Why the poor are sicker? Moving from description to policy” in McDermott Library Auditorium (MC 2.410).


CGG team members presented their research projects at APHA

November 2017

Three CGG team members presented their research findings at the 2017 American Public Health Association (APHA) annual conference in November 4-8, 2017 in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Dohyeong Kim presented a poster titled “Evaluating urban safety via metabolism: a case of South Korea” Ms. Soojin Min presented a poster titled “Spatial analysis of fatalities and injuries by urban residential fire incidents,” and Ms. HyoungAh Kim presented a poster titled “Allocating NPIR (Negative Pressure Isolation Rooms) hospitals for infectious diseases.” All the presentations received great attention.


Dr. Kim reaches out to the Korean community

September 2017

Since 2015, Dr. Kim has been invited as a regular expert panelist of a current affair radio show (“Si-Sa Plus”) at the Dallas Korean Radio (KKDA AM 730 DKNET; dknet730.com). It is the only one Korean-American radio station in the South-Central region of US, covering the listeners living in Dallas, Fort Worth, Denton and North Austin. At the current affair show, Dr. Kim and other panelist discuss various issues in US and Korea, including the recent North Korea missile crisis.


Two CGG associates got Ph.D and started a new job

August 2017

Dr. Priyanka Vyas and Anh Pham successfully defended their doctoral dissertations during the summer 2017 and started their new journey as a fresh Ph.D. Dr. Priyanka joins the University of California at San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education as a postdoctoral scholar and Dr. Anh Pham is hired as an assistant professor at the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, Vietnam.


Consultation with scholars from South Korea on public safety programs

April – June 2017

Dr. Kim assisted several scholars from South Korea who would like to learn about the U.S. urban safety programs and policies. Dr. Kim arranged the meetings and site visits with several health and safety organizations for them including the Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas, Fort Worth Safe Communities Coalition, Frisco Safety Town, and Cobb County Safety Village. These activities appeared in the media:


Keynote speeches at the International Symposium on Food and Drug Safety

September 2016

In two years in a row, Dr. Kim was invited as a keynote speaker at the International Symposium on Food and Drug Safety Emergency Response, hosted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea. His 2015 and 2016 presentation titles were “Food and drugs risk management policy trends” and “Events, accidents and crisis management trends of medicine and medical products,” respectively.


Summer statistical trainings at KOSSDA

July 2016

In four years in a row, Dr. Kim was invited to teach a week-long summer methodology workshop on spatial statistical analysis at the Seoul National University and the Korean Social Science Data Archive (KOSSDA). The details are found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoSoszPaWa0


Summer fieldwork interviewing medical students and professionals in Vietnam

July 2016

During the summer 2016, Anh Pham started her fieldwork in four cities in Vietnam including Hanoi, Haiphong, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam for the research funded by Haiphong University of Medicine and Pharmacy titled “Exploring Determinants for Recruitment and Retention of Family Doctors for Rural Practice in Vietnam: Lessons from a Discrete Choice Experiment.” Dr. Kim visited the fieldwork sites and supervised the enumerator trainings and choice experiment questionnaire development.


Presentation at the 2016 Annual Congress of the EAACI

June 2016

Dr. Kim gave a panel presentation at the 2016 Annual Congress of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) in June 2016 in Vienna, Austria. He shared the major findings from the recent research project funded by the National Research Foundation from Korea titled “Smart prevention for allergic diseases: GIS-based risk index and IT-based mobile monitoring.”


CGG research appeared in local media in Bangladesh

June 2016

Dr. Kim and Ms. Vyas, along with Dr. Malabika in BRAC Univerisity in Bangladesh, published an article “Role of spatial tools in public health policymaking of Bangladesh: opportunities and challenges” at the recent issue of Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition. They identified several issues that keep Bangladesh from fully adopting the use of spatial tools, including a lack of collaboration between institutions, lack of trained personnel and lack of awareness of the use of geographic information systems in decision-making. The findings received attention from the local media: Daily Sun


1st Global Symposium on Crisis & Emergency Management with two professors from Korea

January 2016

CGG hosted the first Global Symposium on Crisis & Emergency Management on January 15-16 with the two well-renowned professors from South Korea: Prof. Jae Eun Lee and Prof. Jang Hee Lee at Chungbuk National University. This two-day symposium is co-hosted by the National Crisis and Emergency Management Research Institute at Chungbuk National University in Korea, the Korea Policy Forum, and Crisis and Emergency Management: Theory and Praxis. Prof. Jae Eun Lee gave a keynote speech titled “Crisisonomy & Disastronomy: Academic Development of Crisis and Emergency Management under the Concept of Comprehensive Security,” followed by the four presentations by Prof. Jang Hee Lee, Mr. Fabien Cottier, Ms. Hyong Ah Kim and Mr. Brett Cease. All participants in the roundtable discussion on January 16th discussed about the future directions of collaborative research on global crisis and emergency management.


Inaugural CGG Speaker Series with Dr. Joseph Oppong from UNT

December 2015

As an inaugural event for CGG, the first CGG speak series was held at 11:30-12:30 on December 11th, 2015. Dr. Joseph Oppong, Professor of Geography and Associate Dean for Research at UNT, visited CGG with his research group members and presented his research projects with a title of “Disease, Vulnerability and GIS.” After his presentation, his research group and all CGG members had a joint team meeting to exchange various ideas about potential research collaboration in the future.


Consultation for South Korea’s MERS Crisis

June 2015

Dr. Dohyeong Kim had an interview with the National Public Radio (NPR), Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and a few local media concerning the recent outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in South Korea. He emphasized the importance of transparency, professionalism and accountability in communication with the public in order to address unwarranted panic over the disease and widespread distrust of government. The details can be found at: South Korea’s MERS Crisis Exposes Public Distrust Of Leaders


Internships and site visit activities for Korean students and scholars

February 2015

Dr. Dohyeong Kim, with assistance from Soojin Min, organized a 10-day internship entitled “Experience Dallas as a future city: technology, culture and governance” for ten undergraduate students from Incheon National University in Korea (February 3-12, 2015), and offered a one-week site visit program to eight scholars from the city of Sejong to support their current efforts to join the WHO’s International Safe Community (March 22-28, 2015). The UTD News Center published an article on the internship: Visiting Students Experience Dallas Through Future City Program


Best student presentation prize at the 2015 Global Health Student Conference

January 2015

Anh Pham received the best student presentation prize at the 2015 Global Health Student Conference hosted by UT-Southwestern in January 2015. She presented a paper co-authored with Dr. Dohyeong Kim titled “A meta-regression analysis of the effectiveness of mosquito nets for malaria control.”


EPPS Advisory Council award 2015 in support of CGG

December 2014

Drs. Dohyeong Kim and Yongwan Chun received $5,000 from the EPPS Advisory Council to support their efforts to develop the Center for Geospatial Research in Global Health Policy (CGG) during the year of 2015.


Featured poster at the 2014 APPAM Fall Conference

November 2014

Priyanka Vyas’ poster “Evaluating the Feasibility of Spatial Tools to Scale up Child Immunization Coverage in Bangladesh”, coauthored with Dr. Dohyeong Kim, is featured on the APPAM 2014 (Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management) conference website. To see the poster, please click on the link: www.appam.org/works-in-progress-poster-session-profiles/?CategoryId=5.


Short course in geospatial health at ICDDR

September 2014

Drs. Dohyeong Kim and Yongwan Chun traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh in September 20-26, 2014 to hold a week-long invited short course on geospatial analysis for health care, jointly hosted by ICDDR, B (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) and James P Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University, and funded by USAID. During the visit, they had an opportunity to interact with many global health researchers and practitioners in Bangladesh who are eager to build a long-term partnership with CGG, in terms of collaborative research activities, public health data sharing, fieldwork support, and student/faculty exchanges.