From bobhoch@worldnet.att.net Thu May 6 14:37:51 1999 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id OAA51846 for ; Thu, 6 May 1999 14:37:50 -0700 Received: from mtiwmhc01.worldnet.att.net (mtiwmhc01.worldnet.att.net [204.127.131.36]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id OAA27539 for ; Thu, 6 May 1999 14:37:50 -0700 Received: from worldnet.att.net ([12.78.178.235]) by mtiwmhc01.worldnet.att.net (InterMail v03.02.07 118 124) with ESMTP id <19990506213745.HJUA22194@worldnet.att.net> for ; Thu, 6 May 1999 21:37:45 +0000 Message-ID: <37320B56.C4ADB0DE@worldnet.att.net> Date: Thu, 06 May 1999 17:36:23 -0400 From: "Robert B. Hoch" Reply-To: bobhoch@worldnet.att.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.51 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: waphgis@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: BGC99 References: <3731F281.3B1F505E@worldnet.att.net> <000801be97fe$abb36260$7b790518@olmpi1.wa.home.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit "Richard E. Hoskins" wrote: > Bob: I have NO problem with a little promotion especially when a public > health problem can be solved as a result of it. Unless you're forwarding (even edited) what I sent you before, I'll post to the group a shortened version of my earlier note. > I agree with your points - > and I have been trying for some time to get my agency to buy one of the > lifestyle/demographic-type marketing databases. But there is no $. This > stuff is not cheap. For example, we can't get a handle who is smoking and > what the demographics of smokers are. These marketing dB's have that > stuff - and much more, which directly relates to public health. Wouldn't it > be great if we could target neighborhoods concerning smoking rather than > using a blunderbuss approach and do it by county? Interventions could be > developed which are culturally, age, sex, etc. appropriate. I'll bet you can get the demographics - after all, that's in the census data. But the hook, of course, is that specific link to smokers (BTW, I'm one of those untouchables - smoke a pipe). I have a few thoughts on that topic (i.e. the data question), but I better keep those to myself for now lest I unwittingly tease you with something I can't deliver. Translation: let me look into that. > As far as health care and GIS, you are right, there has not been much. But > public health and GIS as a commercial opportunity for vendors has been > totally ignored and ... that is where the money is! There 3000+ counties, > thousands of city health departments, 50 state health departments, I guess > 75 schools of public health or similar, thousands upon thousands of health > care practitioners that could benefit from epidemiological data available in > geographic form, but so far not much response. Y'know, it sounds like there might be places for someone like myself to coach people. I know GIS, but frankly spend a lot of my time writing, organizing conferences, working with local customers, etc. I sense from the list that there's a group of list-ers out there who are on the verge of something good, but can't quite put their finger on what that might be. > As far as re-inventing the wheel goes, I submit that the notion of > "catchment area" is not all worked out, but there is little doubt that the > marketing folks are ahead of epidemiologists. My earlier comments were based on what I believe to be a fact: that while epidemiology as such hasn't been tackled, it's closely akin to trade area analysis. With a little tweaking, I suspect there could be some rapid progress. And now that I think of it, I'd be very surprised if someone at CDC (or similar organization) wasn't doing something relevant. And by the way, I think the whole idea of creating a List for public health folks is a terrific idea! I can tell you from experience that many little vexing problems find solutions in such groups, not to mention the idea of tossing ideas around in a setting that allows folks to question their assumptions. ;-) Bob -- Robert Hoch Consulting 22614 Woodfield Road Gaithersburg, MD 20882 (301) 840-9320 FAX (301) 840-9413 .