Douglas Fleming to defend PHP Ph.D. dissertation

The Spatial Sciences Institute community is cordially invited to the dissertation defense presentation by Population, Health and Place Ph.D. candidate Douglas Fleming.

Monday, July 19, 2021, 3:30 pm PT

https://usc.zoom.us/j/97074418665?pwd=T2REdTBZK3RWbWNOaE84Uk5zbC9DQT09

"Spatiotemporal Studies of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests and

Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in Los Angeles"

ABSTRACT

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) continue to be a persistent public health issue. Decreasing the non-performance bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (NBCPR) is one key element in improving survivorship with a good neurological outcome when an OHCA occurs. One way to reduce NBCPR is by understanding where and how persistent this issue is in certain communities. The primary objective of this dissertation is to provide an analytical framework for creating actionable intelligence on OHCA and NBCPR.

This dissertation seeks to accomplish that objective through two avenues – (1) using spatiotemporal methods to analyze OHCA and NBCPR and (2) increasing understanding of OHCA and NBCPR through analyzing OHCA and NBCPR through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. Spatiotemporal methods, currently, are virtually absent from the OHCA literature that uses spatially enabled data.

This dissertation shows that spatiotemporal methods are viable and can provide more relevant and useful information for identifying high-risk areas than spatial analysis alone.

This dissertation also shows that the COVID-19 pandemic had differential impacts on communities in Los Angeles, which also helps inform public health practitioners about resource utilization for public health and medical emergencies.

The final portion of this dissertation furthers the goal of creating an analytical framework by providing a high-level tutorial on two of the analyses in this dissertation.