The third edition of this tutorial on geographic information systems for public health professionals and students has been updated to include the new ArcGIS 9.3 software release from ESRI. Kurland and Gorr (public policy and management, Carnegie Mellon U.) describe how GIS technologies are currently used to study geographic health data on illnesses, accidents, mortality rates and uninsured populations in order to design health insurance policies. The authors also provide tutorials that use actual case studies and research data, and include a new section on the Spatial Analyst extension software that can estimate the need for medical equipment such as automated defibrillators in certain geographical locations. A CD-ROM is included that features a 180-day trial version of the ArcGIS Desktop software application. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less