Development of web-based geocoding applications for the population-based Birth Defects Surveillance System in New York state.

Geographic information systems (GIS) have been widely used in mapping health data and analyzing the geographic distribution of disease. Mapping and spatially analyzing data normally begins with geocoding, a process of assigning geographic coordinates to an address so that it can be displayed and analyzed on a map. The objectives of this project were to develop Web-based geocoding applications for the New York State birth defects surveillance system to geocode, both automatically and interactively, the birth defect cases of the Congenital Malformations Registry (CMR) and evaluate the geocoding results. Geocoding software, in conjunction with a Java-based development tool (J Server), was used to develop the Web-based applications on the New York State Department of Health's Health Commerce System. The Web-based geocoding applications have been developed and implemented for the New York State birth defects surveillance system. These menu-driven applications empower users to conduct geocoding activities using only a PC and a Web browser without the installation of any GIS software. These powerful tools provide automatic, real-time, street-level geocoding of the routinely collected birth defects records in the CMR. Up to 92% of the CMR records have been geocoded with addresses exactly matched to the reference addresses on house number, street name, and city or zip code.