Ali Mokdad from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation will be speaking tomorrow in the computing and the developing world seminar. There are tremendous challenges in conducting accurate public health surveys in the developing world - Ali will be talking about these in the context of technology change. This is a great opportunity to learn more about a very important domain, where there are many open computing and technology problems.

CSE 590f, Wednesday, January 21, 4:00-4:50 pm, CSE 403.
Public Health Surveillance in a Changing Telecommunication Environment.

Dr. Ali Mokdad, IHME and UW

The rapid changes in telecommunication technology has changed public health surveillance. For example, response rates for most random digit dial (RDD) telephone surveys declined precipitously, leaving researchers to question the validity and reliability of these data. The growth in telemarketing efforts, increased use of cellular telephones, advancements in caller-identification and call-screening technology, and the advent of "do not call" lists have helped to accelerate this drop in surveys participation. As a result, several large surveillance system are using a "multi mode" approach to data collection by administering their surveys via the web, mail, cellular telephone, and landline telephone. The presentation will provide an overview of the challenges and solutions.

Dr. Mokdad recently joined the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. The main mission of IHME is to monitor global health conditions and health systems, as well as evaluate interventions, initiatives, and reforms. This will provide high quality and timely information on health so that policymakers, researchers, donors, practitioners, local decision-makers, and others can better allocate limited resources to achieve optimal results.