Please count on me, if anyone you know needs a place to stay!

San Diego on fire!!! I heard about the wild fire in 2003, I was not here then. But this has been a real night mare. I feel a lot for all the people out there, who were evacuated, some lost their houses, and everyone lost their peace of mind!! I know of a friend in Victorville, Who had to do a voluntary evacuation and thenthey were asked to move back in. Last thing that upset the happiness to get back in their unburnt house was to go there and find out that there has been a burlgary and robbery in their house, and most of the valuables have been stolen. Its a materialistic loss, which shall be covered by the Insurance but not some irreplaceable valuables like pics, albums, and gifts from loved ones! Same thing happened to one of my students...This is the worst act, and I can't believe,how someone instead of trying to help and volunteer, but think of doing these horrendeous acts. Great job Tiffany for volunteering!!I went there and registered, but did not get a call back..Bummer!! And this one goes to all my classmates, and their friends and anyone they know..if there is anyone who needs place to live, please please feel free to count on me. My apartment is not very big, but my heart is...I am very willing, and shall be very happy, if I can be of any help to anyone!!! Megan, hope you are doing fine, now back to your house..I can understand how horrible the last few days would have been for you. This also goes a step ahead to prove, that our advancement and technology stands no where in front of the vagaries of nature.

What is Formative Research?

I must start with saying that It was really great to see every one do the group presentations. For GSPH course work, it was my first direct partner and community interaction. It was an experience to talk to people in Immunization branch, and convince them that Formative research was important. Not to mention the name, but it was funny when I was asked back “What is Formative Research, I have never heard of this before”. And they were trying to find mistakes in our survey as if it was a measurement tool. But that’s how I guess life is, we were the people with knowledge of science and convinced them that we knew what we were doing, and it shall help us to better tailor the campaign.

It was a good to see the field work that all the groups had done for their topics. Presentations were nice, and I feel, we could have done a little better. Really impressive was the example of the calculator and the lap top. It just made me realize certain things that probably were in my sub conscious. And I totally agree that it’s the percentage of difference that matters, and not the absolute numbers, just like in case of calculator, it would make sense to go to another place for $10, but not for computer. I also tend to base my decisions thinking, how much time I would spend, and the gas, as for me: time and gas are equally important resources which I would weigh against the money that I could potentially save.

It is so true how the tone and design of messages have an impact on us. Fear, comedy, social significance are all potent ways to do that, and there is generally good background research done as to what should work for what type of message. This just keeps me wondering, what we. The Mass Vaccination group should be doing, to get people to the Vaccination clinic.

We Need Health Segmentation Tools!!

Just like most of my class mates, i was really impressed with Rocio's presentation. They had done really good formative research and used really cool, eye catching concepts for posters. I was intrigued with the various segmentation tools. The VALS and PRISM tools were good, but I am really looking forward to the health related segmentation tools. Dr Engelberg told me during the break, that he would be introducing the class to those awesome methods. As always, I would keep on wondering what's more important: segmentation (which tailors the intervention, and makes its successful) or generalizability of an intervention. But if we have both internally and externally valid health behavior related segmentation tools,then the process of segmentation and tailoring the intervention to those segments would be both successful and generalizable. I am sure, there would have been researchers who would have worked on it, or some would be still working on it. Like it would be so cool to have Eating behavior related segments, and if we have to design an intervention or campaign, we just look up the zip code, its tells us what percentage of what types exist in there, and then we make the intervention accordingly.Also, in the class, I really liked the Backward segmentation, which I feel helps a lot to figure out what differences really matter.