From rhoskins@home.com Thu May 6 14:48:39 1999 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id OAA21676 for ; Thu, 6 May 1999 14:48:38 -0700 Received: from ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com (siteadm@ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com [24.0.2.66]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.02/8.9.3+UW99.01) with ESMTP id OAA00105 for ; Thu, 6 May 1999 14:48:38 -0700 Received: from c501552a ([24.5.121.123]) by ha1.rdc1.wa.home.com (Netscape Mail Server v2.02) with SMTP id AAA8832 for ; Thu, 6 May 1999 14:48:37 -0700 Message-ID: <009001be980a$2e6ddf40$7b790518@olmpi1.wa.home.com> From: "Richard E. Hoskins" To: References: <3731F281.3B1F505E@worldnet.att.net> <000801be97fe$abb36260$7b790518@olmpi1.wa.home.com> <37320B56.C4ADB0DE@worldnet.att.net> Subject: Re: BGC99 Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 14:48:30 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert B. Hoch To: Sent: Thursday, May 06, 1999 2:36 PM Subject: Re: BGC99 > "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 > > .