Services
Interviewers can accurately assign times to these markers based on mode of transportation, speed of movement, interruptions and other environmental factors
Using the STARS application on laptops, interviewers can record each victim’s verbal account by placing digital markers indicating the location of each significant activity on a street map or high-resolution satellite photo
STARS is an innovative epidemiologic space-time modeling map-based tool that that helps health care professionals reconstruct the events preceding an assault
Client: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Challenge: Gunshot injury is the leading cause of death in 10-19 year old African American men, and the second leading cause of adolescent death overall. Researchers suspect that exposure to alcohol and other environmental dangers play a significant role in these crimes. Health care professionals at the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) School of Medicine aimed to understand how adolescents’ daily routines -- and their movements through space and time -- expose them to alcohol, weapons, and other risk factors for violence. To conduct this research, they needed an activity tracking software tool that would help them guide adolescents through the process of reconstructing the series of events and encounters in the 24-hour period preceding the assault
Solution: Through a partnership with the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the UPENN School of Nursing, Azavea developed the Space-Time Adolescent Risk Study (STARS) Travel Path (STARS), an innovative epidemiologic space-time modeling map-based tool that that helps health care professionals reconstruct the events preceding an assault. Using the STARS application on laptops, interviewers can record each victim’s verbal account by placing digital markers indicating the location of each significant activity on a street map or high-resolution satellite photo. They can accurately assign times to these markers based on mode of transportation, speed of movement, interruptions and other environmental factors. Other key details, like whether the victim carried a gun or consumed drugs or alcohol within the 24 hours prior to the event, are also inputted, and 80-100 points of activity are typically recorded. Using Esri’s ArcGIS engine toolkit, the STARS mapping application quickly generates and displays customized maps, and geocodes and records points of activity.
Outcomes: By visually mapping victims’ verbal accounts, STARS provides researchers with a powerful tool for accurately recording complex space/time data. The results of this study help researchers understand how daily routines, social interactions, use of drugs and alcohol, and possession of weapons effect an adolescent’s risk of being assaulted with a weapon.