title: Applying spatial epidemiology to hematological disease using R: a guide for hematologists and oncologists.
abstract: "Spatial statistics" is an academic field that deals with the statistical analysis of spatial data, and has been applied to econometrics and various other policy fields. These methods are easily applied by hematologists and oncologists using better and much less expensive software. To encourage physicians to use these methods, this review introduces the methods and demonstrates the analyses using R and FleXScan, which can be freely downloaded from the website, with sample data. It is demonstrated that spatial analysis can be used by physicians to analyze hematological diseases. In addition, applying the technique presented to the investigation of patient prognoses may enable generation of data that are also useful for solving health policy-related problems, such as the optimal distribution of medical resources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Kei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Yamagata University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Narimatsu
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Yamagata University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Otani
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Yamagata University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Ri
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sho
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Yosuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shiono
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Ikuko
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Yamagata University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fukao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Hematology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Diabetology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kato
keywords: Tango’s index; leukemia; malignant lymphoma; spatial regression model