Parker Group

What we do

The Parker Group at the University of California, Irvine studies healthcare access, infectious disease epidemiology, spatial analysis, and human populations in challenging environments. Our work focuses especially on remote rural areas, conflict-affected regions, displaced communities, and places where access to care is difficult to measure.

Spatial analysis is a common thread across our work. We combine geographic information systems, spatial epidemiology, demography, anthropology, earth observation, field-based research, and data science to understand how people interact with health systems, environments, and disease risk.

Open Tools, Data, and Training Materials

In addition to publishing research, we develop open tools, data, methods, training materials, and field-based research resources. Our GitHub organization includes reproducible research repositories, software, earth observation tutorials, public datasets, lab documentation, and student-facing materials.

Explore our open resources or visit the Parker Group GitHub organization.

Research Areas

Our research spans Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Americas, with projects focused on malaria, tuberculosis, arboviral diseases, cholera, COVID-19, healthcare access, migration, displacement, and the health effects of conflict.

Across these projects, we use spatial analysis, field-based methods, epidemiological data, and community-engaged research to identify barriers to care and support more effective public health responses.

Collaborations

Our work is collaborative and applied, involving partnerships with universities, non-governmental organizations, governmental organizations, and research groups in the regions where we work.