www.healthprofile.org.uk
mCHIP began as a prototype system designed for Manchester’s Health City Initiative in 1998.
It was the outcome of extensive consultation with health workers and voluntary and community
groups in the city about their information needs. Working with the founders of Manchester Geomatics, a web-based
geographical information system was developed to provide them with information about health
inequalities (and the many factors that affect them), the location of relevant services and
facilities, and community based assessments of health issues.
This pilot system was taken up by the Manchester-Salford-Trafford Health Action Zone
(MAST-HAZ), who saw it as part of its role to make available to the public
easy-to-understand information about health inequalities. By that time, Manchester Geomatics had been
established, and was commissioned to develop the pilot into a publicly available
system across the whole HAZ area. Further extensive consultation with potential
users about the design and content of the system took place in 2000, and the
system was launched in 2001. The HAZ was a time-limited initiative, and since
its demise in 2004 the system has been developed further under the auspices
of the Manchester Local Strategic Partnership, with the aid of Neighbourhood
Renewal Funding.
Manchester Geomatics has been responsible for developing the system and maintaining its content
since its inception. It has evolved over its lifetime, but remains a cross-sectoral
initiative, overseen by a steering group representing the local authority,
health authority and the voluntary and community sector.
In its current form it provides the information base for
Manchester’s Strategic Health Plan. Information can be view thematically,
with statistics and services grouped under the main objectives of the Strategic
Health Plan. A series of easy steps allows non-experts to access a wide range of
policy-related information for issues such as smoking, drugs & alcohol, accidents,
etc. The project has also included a pilot for mobile access to the
“where’s my nearest?” part of the system, using mobile devices such as WAP phones
and PDAs.
An independent evaluation of mCHIP was carried out in 2006, giving a clear picture
of the widespread use of the system as a source of public information
(a librarian: “It is a really valuable resource. This is the kind of enquiry we
often get”; a library user : “I found it useful and interesting for information
about groups I would like to join”, by researchers and students:
“It has all the statistics relevant to the areas I was researching.
MCHIP has saved me lots of time where I would otherwise (have) had to
search other databases on the internet”), and by voluntary groups bidding
for resources. The evaluation document is available at..
For project information please visit http://www.healthprofile.org.uk.