GIS allows scientists to view journey of malaria through the continent
A system of electronic mapping which allows many different types of data to be layered onto a single image is being used to improve healthcare across Rwanda.
The digital maps, called Geographic Information Systems (GIS), are designed to compile information from numerous databases and use it to both track and predict outbreaks of disease.
This can then be used to help developing countries best utilise their limited resources. For example, GIS is used to organise data on clusters of disease and the availability of drinking water.
"Roads, power lines and buildings can be digitised; you can also store attribute information about the buildings, if they are residential or commercial," Max Baber from the University of Redlands in California, who is leading a GIS project in Rwanda, told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme.
"Once you tie things down to a certain location, you can start to explore the spatial relationships between them."
Gathering information
By putting this information together on a map, correlations can be found between things that might not be obvious from looking at graphs or tables.
Information collected in Rwanda for example shows not only the locations of health services, but water and electricity supplies as well. It also records how many cases of illnesses such as malaria have occurred in different parts of the country.
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