The Continuing Education Unit at the College of Dentistry, Al-Qadisiyah University, held an educational workshop entitled “Applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Planning and Distributing Health Services and Dental Centers.” The workshop was presented by asst. Lec. Sura Hamid Yasser

The workshop aimed to assess spatial coverage and identify areas of deficit and surplus in the distribution of dental centers and health services using geographic maps and measuring accessibility: calculating travel times and distances to ensure patients reach health centers in the shortest possible time.

Key recommendations include: establishing a unified spatial database; building a central health geodatabase that links all centers and clinics to population data and is updated regularly; adopting spatial analysis for decision-making; ceasing the random distribution of centers; and requiring planning authorities to certify the opening of any new clinic against GIS standards and maps.