FSI’s researchers assess health and medicine through the lenses of economics, nutrition and politics. They’re studying and influencing public health policies of local and national governments and the roles that corporations and nongovernmental organizations play in providing health care around the world. Scholars look at how governance affects citizens’ health, how children’s health care access affects the aging process and how to improve children’s health in Guatemala and rural China. They want to know what it will take for people to cook more safely and breathe more easily in developing countries.
FSI professors investigate how lifestyles affect health. What good does gardening do for older Americans? What are the benefits of eating organic food or growing genetically modified rice in China? They study cost-effectiveness by examining programs like those aimed at preventing the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons. Policies that impact obesity and undernutrition are examined; as are the public health implications of limiting salt in processed foods and the role of smoking among men who work in Chinese factories. FSI health research looks at sweeping domestic policies like the Affordable Care Act and the role of foreign aid in affecting the price of HIV drugs in Africa.
Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health
Infectious diseases, though largely preventable, are a major cause of death and disability around the world. This curriculum was developed for students to: learn about the biological basis of infectious disease; understand how diseases can spread and affect whole populations; explore the public health response to such threats; and get involved in their own communities. Case studies and multimedia activities are designed to debunk myths, stimulate creative thinking, and inspire the next generation of public health advocates.
The Narcissism of Minor Differences: How America and Europe are Alike
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It is commonly believed that America and Europe are very different societies, and growing apart. A look at the data shows that the anecdotes are misleading and that the differences across the Atlantic have been overstated.
Peter Baldwin, Professor of History at UCLA, is author of several books on the comparative history of European and American state building, most recently, Disease and Democracy: The Industrialized World Faces AIDS.
Introduction by FSI Senior Fellow Josef Joffe.
Encina Ground Floor Conference Room
Peter Baldwin
Professor of History, UCLA
Speaker
Seminars
An Equilibrium Model of the African HIV/AIDS Epidemic
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An equilibrium search model of the Malawian HIV/AIDS epidemic is presented. Individuals engage in di¤erent types of sexual activity, which vary in their riskiness. When choosing a sexual activity, such as short-term sex without a condom, a person rationally considers its risk. A simulated version of the model is parameterized to match some salient facts about the Malawian epidemic. Some topical policies (e.g., male circumcision, treatment of other STDs, and promoting marriage) are studied and found to have potential to back re: Moderate interventions may actually increase the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, due to shifts in human behavior and equilibrium e¤ects.
Assistant Professor Michele Tertilt is one of three Stanford scholars awarded a two-year Sloan Research Fellowship. The Sloan Research Fellowships support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers. Michele's research focuses on family economics, consumer credit, growth and development, and demography. The Economics department congratulates Michele on the prestigious fellowship.
Encina Ground Floor Conference Room
Michele Tertilt
Assistant Professor
Speaker
the Department of Economics, Stanford University
Seminars
Giving Farmers a Voice
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Abstract
Improving the productivity of small farmers is essential for economic development in most poor countries. Providing access to timely and relevant information could improve the opportunities available to farmers. However, there are significant challenges related to literacy, infrastructure, access to technology and social, cultural, institutional and linguistic gaps between producers and consumers of knowledge. The increased adoption of mobile phones is rapidly reducing the physical barriers of access. Providing voice-based services via low-cost handsets could empower farmers to become producers as well as consumers of knowledge. In this talk, I discuss several applications my students and I are developing to explore this potential. Avaaj Otalo (Gujarati for "voice stoop") is the voice-based equivalent of an online discussion board. Farmers and agricultural experts call a toll-free line to ask questions, provide answers, and listen to each others questions, answers and experiences. We conducted a six-month trial deployment of Avaaj Otalo with fifty farmers in Gujarat, India. Farmers found it useful to learn both from experts and other farmers, sharing advice on many topics - including the best time to sow fodder, recipes for organic pesticides, and homemade devices to scare away wild pigs at night. Digital ICS allows coffee cooperatives to monitor quality and organic certification requirements, and to be more responsive to farmers' needs. Field inspectors use mobile phones to document growing conditions and record farmers questions and comments through a combination of text, audio and images. In a six-month trial deployment, the system significantly reduced operational costs, saving the cooperative approximately $10,000 a year. The cooperative also obtained richer feedback from its members, which can be used for targeting extension, improving decision-making and reaching out to consumers. In both of these systems, voice provides not only an accessible interface to information, but a medium for aggregating and representing knowledge itself. We found this approach more suitable for engaging communities more comfortable with oral forms of communication, for whom text and structured data represent significant barriers to expression. Most importantly, we have found that rural communities have a deep desire to be "heard", and simply need the tools required to define and achieve "development" on their own terms.
Tapan Parikh's research focuses on the use of computing to support sustainable economic development across the World. I want to learn how to build appropriate, affordable information systems; systems that are accessible to end users, support learning and reinforce community efforts towards empowerment, economic development and sustainable use of natural resources. Some specific topics that I am interested in include human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile computing and information systems supporting microfinance, smallholder agriculture and global health
Summary of the Seminar
Tapan Parikh, of UC Berkeley School of Information, spoke about a number of projects that are using mobile phone based technology to give small businesses the information they need to improve productivity. He argued that voice technology has distinct advantages over text, because it overcomes challenges of illiteracy while responding to a strong need people feel to be heard.
Information is key for economic development and empowerment. But information is worthless unless it is also useable (leads to decisions the business owner can actually take), trusted (comes from a source he respects) and relevant (speaks about the issues he is facing). For information to be really empowering, it must also be two way: there must be ways for individuals to create content themselves.
Tapan described three current projects he is involved in:
Hisaab: Microfinance groups in India often suffer from poor paper based record keeping, making it difficult for the group to track loans and repayments. The Hissab software was designed with an interface suitable for those who may be illiterate and/or new to computing. The use of voice commands and responses in the local language, Tamil, prevented the software from feeling remote and inaccessible and contributed to the success of this initiative.
Avaaj Otalo: Agricultural extension workers provide advice to farmers on pests, new techniques etc to help improve yields. But often they have limited reach, visiting areas only rarely, or perhaps lacking the expertise to respond to all the problems they encounter. Avaaj Otalo is a system for farmers to access relevant and timely agricultural information over the phone. By dialing a phone number and navigating through simple audio prompts, farmers can record questions, respond to others, or access content published by agricultural experts and institutions. The service has been hugely popular, with farmers willing to spend time listening to large amounts of material to find what they want. The opportunity to be broadcast was a major attraction, reflecting the desire to be heard and to create media rather than be a passive consumer of it.
Digital ICS: Smallholders' compliance with organic, fair-trade and quality requirements is usually measured via paper based internal inspections. The data uncovered by these is vital but often lost. Digital ICS is a mobile phone based application that allows inspectors to fill out the survey digitally, enhance it with visual evidence (e.g. from camera phones) and upload it onto a web application. This is being piloted with coffee farmers in Mexico. A key finding from the work is that farmers want to know who ends up drinking their coffee, what they pay for it and what they think about it. Greater links between producers and consumers may therefore be another area for this project to investigate.
Wallenberg Theater
Bldg 160
Tapan Parikh
Assistant Professor
Speaker
University of California, Berkeley; affiliate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Washington
Seminars