As an adjunct professor of geography with a multidisciplinary PHD in geography, ethics/philosophy and medicine I continue to work in three allied fields. First, issues of medical geography and the means by which epidemic and endemic diseases are understood spatially, primarily through mapping. This work has been both historical and contemporary, generating two books (Disease Maps: Epidemics on the Ground and Cartographies of Disease, New Enlarged Edition) and over 30 papers.

In addition, work continues in the area of medical ethics and bioethics with papers and two current book proposals in evaluation. The most recent book in this area was Ethics in Everyday Places: Mapping Moral Stress, Distress, and Injury. Again, over 50 papers published.

With a background in journalism as both a reporter and writer, I have since Jan. 26, 2020, done over 203 interviews with Canadian and International media on the Covid-19 pandemic. The most recent interviews were in Jan. 2023.

GIS, Mapping and Health: Books using GIS

• Disease Maps: Epidemics on the Ground. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2011.
• Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping, and Medicine. ESRI Press, Redlands CA. 2005.
• The Wreck of the William Brown: Lifeboat Murders and Trial. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; London: Constable. Includes 5 maps in a study of the seminal legal case, US versus Holmes. 2003.
• Scarce Goods: Justice, Fairness, and Organ Transplantation. Westport and London: Praeger Books. 2001. Includes 14 maps in its consideration of US policies of graft organ distribution 2001.
• Six Islands on Two Wheels: A Cycling Guide to Hawaii. Honolulu: Bess Press, Includes 18 maps in a cycling guide that Considered the “scale of the bicycle” in transportation. 1990.

Recent and forthcoming papers: GIS, Mapping and Health

• “Mapping Public Health and Disease.” History of Cartography Vol. 7. University of Chicago Press. In Press.
• “John Snow’s Broad Street Map: The legend.” History of Cartrography Vol. 7. University of Chicago Press. In Press.
• “Fighting disease, like fighting fires: The lessons Ebola Teaches.” Canadian Geographer. In Press.
• “Ebola in West Africa: lessons we may have learned.” International Journal of Epidemiology. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyv324 Jan. 2016.
•“Ebola, Quarantine, and the Scale of Ethics.” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Oct. 2015. DOI: 10.1017/dmp.2015.115
• “Mapping disaster: Old lessons Ebola made new,” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 9:1, 66-73 March 2015.
• Tom Koch on Ebola and Disease Maps, Remedia Audio interview (Harvard), http://remedianetwork.net/2015/02/20/the-tablet-tom-koch-on-ebola-and-disease-maps/ Feb. 20, 2015.
• “Hubris: The Recurring Pandemic,” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, DOI: 10.1017/dmp.2014.107 Oct. 2014.
• “Prince Kropotkin: public health’s patron saint,” International Journal of Epidemiology 43 (6), 1681-5, Oct. 2014. • “Hubris: The Recurring Pandemic,” Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, DOI: 10.1017/dmp.2014.107 Oct. 22, 2014.
• Ebola: Epidemics, Pandemics and the Mapping of their Containment Remedia: The History of Medicine in Dialog with the Present, http://remedianetwork.net/2014/09/22/ebola-epidemics-pandemics-and- the-mapping-of-their-containment/ Sept. 22, 2014.
• Ebola and the ‘new’ epidemic,” The Chicago Blog, University of Chicago Press, http://pressblog.uchicago.edu/2014/08/13/tom-koch-on-ebola-and-the-new-epidemic.html Aug. 13, 2014.
•Atlases of Disease: A review of “Atlas of Epidemic Britain: A Twentieth Century Picture.” Society and Space: Environment and Planning D (Open Site) http://societyandspace.com/reviews/reviews-archive/smallman-raynor/ http://progressivegeographies.com/2014/07/26/atlases-of-disease/ July 2014.
• Nobody loves a critic: Edmund A. Parks and John Snow’s cholera,International Journal of Epidemiology 42: 1553–1559 Dec. 2013.
• The Researcher as amateur: John Lea, cholera, and … the computer age. International Journal of Epidemiology 3;42, 52–58 2013.
• Plotting to solve a mystery: Maps and London’s health. Geographical Journal (UK). April 26, 2012.
• Knowing its place: Mapping as medical investigation. The Lancet 379, 887-88 10 March, 2012.
•Review: Rebecca Solnit, Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. Cartographica 46:2, 142-143. Spring 2011.
• Visualizing Disease: Understanding epidemics through maps. ArcUser, 64-67. Spring 2011. http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0311/files/diseasemap.pdf.
• When cancer became public. The NAACCR Narrative, 11-13 Http://www.naaccr.org/aboutnaaccr/newsletter.aspx Winter 2011.
•Koch, T. and K. Denike. Essential, Illustrative, or . . . Just Propaganda? Rethinking John Snow’s Broad Street Map Cartographica 45:1, 19–31. 2010.
• Disease Mapping. In Kitchin R, Thrift N (eds) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography Vol. 3, pp. 234-241. Oxford: Elsevier. 2009.
• Disease Mapping. In Kitchin R, Thrift N (eds) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography Vol. 3, pp. 234-241. Oxford: Elsevier. 2009.
• (with Ken Denike). Crediting his critics’ concerns: Remaking John Snow’s map of Broad Street cholera, 1854. Social Science & Medicine 69:8, 1246-1251. August 2009.
• The History of Disease Mapping. Encyclopedia of Human Geography. R. Kitchen and N. Thrift, Editors. Oxford, UK: Elselvier. July 2009.
• Social Epidemiology as Medical Geography:Back to the Future. GeoJournal 74:2, 99-106. April 2009.