Introduction

Predisposition and development of various diseases, communicable, such as malaria and dengue fever, and non-communicable, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, various types of cancer and mental health problems, involve a complex interplay between genetic factors (the genome) and environmental and lifestyle parameters that populations are exposed to (the exposome). When combined with other relevant data, remote sensing data from various sources/products and of different types can help us better map and investigate the latter (exposomic determinants of disease/population-level exposures). However, these data sources and types remain a largely untapped resource for many researchers in the fields of population health and medicine, who are not familiar with the potential and value of these data and the unique insights that can be revealed by using them. Examples of such data obtained via remote sensing include data about air pollutants, land cover, green space, nocturnal outdoor light pollution and noise pollution, among others.

Watch a very short introduction to exposomics by our friends at Mount Sinai Institute for Exposomic Research on YouTube: