Comments for Globalization: Information and Communication Technology

Comment on Egypt’s successful use of ICT by vfanslow

vfanslow — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:03:17 +0000

This was a very good example of just how much the media can play a role in public health. Being very experienced in watching US TV, I often wonder just how effective our own television ad campaigns are in getting messages out. For example, the anti-smoking “Truth” campaign comes to mind. Both of these two public health campaigns were marketed to very specific audiences and had very specific themes.
This Egyptian study was marketed to mothers and the US anti-smoking ad campaign was geared towards young adults. The Egyptian study focuses on maternal love while the anti-smoking campaign tried to portray not just the hazards of smoking but also that it was not “cool” to smoke. Although I am not exactly sure how much the US ad campaign contributed to the decline in adolescent smoking, it is another interesting case study. These two examples provide valuable support for including media in global health efforts.

Comment on Tying Together: Internet’s Role in the Future of Global Public Health Awareness by vfanslow

vfanslow — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:50:23 +0000

This is a topic I have also investigated in my blog. I have looked into ways of connecting people through the internet, especially concerning epidemic outbreaks. I have also found the vast power of information collaboration via the internet extremely captivating but I do think attempting to harness all this information effectively will not happen immediately. Both technology and culture (such as an individual’s trust in the internet, etc) have to advance immensely before all the global public health information available can be compiled. In my blog, I point out several small programs and are beginning to attempt this feat. Some examples are promedmail and healthwatch. You might want to check these out.

Finally, I must agree that the main concerns with making such a vast amount of health information available are “issues with misinformation, global panics and privacy concerns.” It would be interested to look into these more deeply. One particular questions is what new laws would be necessary to protect an individual’s rights if all health information is made public? I believe that this is just one of many important questions that needs to be asked.

Comment on Internet-Induced Inequalities? by mariyak

mariyak — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:27:05 +0000

I think another interesting issue to look at that is related to internet use, is access to free and uncensored information. The issue of the Chinese student is further complicated by the fact that if he does obtain internet access, he will be reading information that has been “pre-digested” by the government, lacking the depth and variety of perspectives that the American student is exposed to. I think that it’d be really interesting to look at the relationship between government censorship and matters of health, equality, and poverty.

Comment on Tying Together: Internet’s Role in the Future of Global Public Health Awareness by rcliu

rcliu — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:21:51 +0000

Now that the world is becoming increasingly modernized with media technologies, the internet will be a vital tool moving forward for healthcare. I feel that even with websites like twitter and facebook, that type of technology has fundamentally changed the way that people interact with one another and has quickly become a crucial form of socializing and communication for people. If the healthcare community can create some type of similar network among itself or use existing technologies, there is a lot of potential for significant impact to be made. Even the simple act of digitizing medical records has made medical care significantly easier to implement, and I hope that going forward, more change can be made by using these technologies. Great post!

Comment on Tying Together: Internet’s Role in the Future of Global Public Health Awareness by dcchen

dcchen — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:04:51 +0000

This post reminds me of this site called Everywun.com. You can basically go on and pick a cause that you want to support. The cause will be posted on your facebook wall. Since this counts as free advertisement, money is donated to support the cause that you pick. I’m not sure exactly how this works, or how effective this is. I feel like the boom in easy access to supporting global causes at the click of a button is definitely more convenient and attracts more people simply for its convenience. However, there is always the question of whether or not these people are making a big difference, or if their mouse-clicking is just generating more publicity and revenue for a private company.

Comment on Wrapping Up - Building a Bridge for the Digital Divide by aminav

aminav — Sun, 31 May 2009 04:02:25 +0000

…I guess the next question remains, when will the divide finally be bridged? it seems to me that a lack of infrastructure, physical and technological, is a large contributor to the divide. I was reading in the Markle book that there’s a Supercourse based from Univ of Pittsburgh that is a free database containing thousands of lectures and research on global health. A group from a developing country tried to access one lecture, and it took them 18 hours just to download the powerpoint! So obviously, just providing the bridge isn’t even efficient, if it’s impractical to use! Yet, if the advancement of technology/communications will continue to improve as much as it has been, then I’m also optimistic that’ll we’ll see some great strides made in the near future! Thanks!

Comment on VERB-ing by lcha

lcha — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:20:14 +0000

I don’t think I’ve heard of that campaign, but I wonder what exactly made the campaign so successful? What methods and media did they use? Connecting education/awareness with behavior change is an issue that many global health programs must tackle, and so other programs (such as HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns) could gain insight on becoming more effective from this obesity campaign.

Comment on VERB-ing by dspoor

dspoor — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:01:14 +0000

I have been really interested in health education campaigns- on an intuitive level, it seems like education just would not be enough! I guess we should not underestimate the power of good marketing and mass individual action. I personally can’t believe the VERB campaign worked- I saw those ads all the time, but never considered that they might be a government-sponsored public health campaign. I guess it made doing activities look cooler, and therefore perhaps more children wanted to do physical activities. You touched on this briefly, but I wonder exactly how the campaign was successful. Is there evidence that it inspired parents to enroll the kids, or helped educators to take action, or was it mostly the kids themselves who were motivated by the ads?

Comment on The past, present, and future of ICT by dspoor

dspoor — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:44:23 +0000

After hearing over and over about the importance of education campaigns, it’s neat to hear about Singapore as a real-life example of one in action. I feel like the only way education campaigns can work is if they are extremely, extensive, thorough, and far-reaching (otherwise, how can you ensure enough people will pay attention?), but it sounds like Singapore’s campaign was all of those things. I love that Singapore put a fine on pools of standing water- what a different idea! How would you enforce that? Do they have police looking for standing water on people’s private property?

I wonder how much of the success of this programs has to do with the size of the country. Also, do you think the different organization and power structure of the Singaporean government (in contrast to the US) helps to be able to integrate and enforce everything, more than the US could?

Comment on Misguided Marketing by hankliao

hankliao — Sun, 24 May 2009 06:04:50 +0000

Thanks for the post. Although the FDA protects us from untested drugs, it does not protect us from pre-approval marketing/priming that draws us into unnecessarily buying potentially harmful drugs. And unfortunately, competing sources of information simply don’t have the monetary clout big pharma has to produce countervailing “research.” Doctors may provide a reliable second or third opinion, assuming they haven’t been bought in by the pharmaceutical company. Expanding the use of government-funded self-help resources can help.