医学地理学，有时也称为健康地理学，是一个医学研究领域，它将地理技术融入到世界各地的健康研究和疾病的传播中。此外，医学地理学研究气候和位置对个人健康以及卫生服务分布的影响。医学地理学是一个重要的领域，因为它旨在根据影响他们的各种地理因素，提供对健康问题的理解并改善全世界人民的健康。医学地理学有着悠久的历史。自希腊医生希波克拉底（公元前5世纪至4世纪）以来，人们研究了位置对一个人健康的影响。例如，早期医学研究了生活在高海拔和低海拔的人们所经历的疾病的差异。很容易理解，那些生活在水道附近低海拔地区的人比那些高海拔地区或干旱，湿度较低的地区更容易患疟疾。一旦人们停止饮用水，霍乱死亡人数就会大大减少。斯诺利用绘图来寻找疾病的来源是医学地理学中最早和最着名的例子。然而，自从他进行研究以来，地理技术已经在许多其他医学应用中找到了自己的位置。另一个地理辅助医学的例子发生在20世纪初的科罗拉多州。在那里，牙医注意到生活在某些地区的孩子蛀牙较少。在地图上绘制这些位置并将其与地下水中的化学物质进行比较后，他们得出结论，蛀洞较少的儿童聚集在氟化物含量较高的地区。从那里开始，氟化物的使用在牙科方面获得了突出地位。虽然当时尚不完全了解这些变异的原因，但对这种疾病空间分布的研究是医学地理学的开端。直到19世纪中叶，尽管霍乱紧紧抓住了伦敦，但这一地理领域并未突出。随着越来越多的人生病，他们相信他们正在被逃离地面的蒸汽感染。伦敦医生约翰·斯诺认为，如果他能分离出感染人群的毒素来源，他们就可以控制霍乱。作为他研究的一部分，斯诺在地图上绘制了整个伦敦的死亡分布图。在检查了这些位置后，他在Broad Street的水泵附近发现了一群异常高的死亡人数。然后，他得出结论，来自这个泵的水是人们生病的原因，他有权当局拆下泵的手柄。
Medical geography, sometimes called health geography, is an area of medical research that incorporates geographic techniques into the study of health around the world and the spread of diseases. In addition, medical geography studies the impact of climate and location on an individual’s health as well as the distribution of health services. Medical geography is an important field because it aims to provide an understanding of health problems and improve the health of people worldwide based on the various geographic factors influencing them. Medical geography has a long history. Since the time of the Greek doctor, Hippocrates (5th-4th centuries BCE), people have studied the effect of location on one’s health. For example, early medicine studied the differences in diseases experienced by people living at high versus low elevation. It was easily understood that those at living low elevations near waterways would be more prone to malaria than those at higher elevations or in drier, less humid areas. Once people then stopped drinking the water, the number of cholera deaths dramatically decreased. Snow’s use of mapping to find the source of disease is the earliest and most famous example of medical geography. Since he conducted his research, however, geographic techniques have found their place in a number of other medical applications. Another example of geography aiding medicine occurred in the early 20th Century in Colorado. There, dentists noticed that children living in certain areas had fewer cavities. After plotting these locations on a map and comparing them with chemicals found in the groundwater, they concluded that the children with fewer cavities were clustered around areas that had high levels of fluoride. From there, the use of fluoride gained prominence in dentistry. Though the reasons for these variations were not fully understood at the time, the study of this spatial distribution of disease is the beginnings of medical geography. This field of geography did not gain prominence until the mid-1800s though when cholera gripped London. As more and more people became ill, they believed they were becoming infected by vapors escaping the ground. John Snow, a doctor in London, believed that if he could isolate the source of the toxins infecting the population they and cholera could be contained. As part of his study, Snow plotted the distribution of deaths throughout London on a map. After examining these locations, he found a cluster of unusually high deaths near a water pump on Broad Street. He then concluded that the water coming from this pump was the reason people were becoming sick and he had authorities remove the handle to the pump.