Funded by NCI, Gamma is software for statistical inference from spatial data such as that in Geographic Information Systems. It uses location models and spatial Monte Carlo methods to fully specify the spatial sampling space. This provides three capabilities: first, it greatly increases our ability to make correct statistical inferences; second, it accounts for positional uncertainty in spatial data; and third, it allows confidentiality (e.g. place of residence) to be preserved without compromising health analysis (e.g. cluster investigations).
Gamma software is currently under development at BioMedware (as of 2/99), and will soon be released commercially.
You and a partner will work through exercises demonstrating several different proximity and distance metrics, as discussed in class. In the final exercise you will use Gamma to analyze a putative clustering of breast cancer cases.
UMich Students: extract Gamma to c:\temp
Page by Andy Long. Comments appreciated.
aelon@sph.umich.edu