2008

Program Summaries

Discussion Topic:  Multilevel Modeling in Health Research

The first brown bag lunch session for 2008 was held on Friday, April 11, 12:00-1:30.  Dr. Lisa Jordan is the Assistant Professor and Research Associate, Department of Geography, Masters of Public Health Program and Center for Demography and Population Health at Florida State University and led the discussion.  The reference for the discussion was  "Health-related behavior in context: A multilevel modeling approach."  For more information, please contact Dr. Falconer at  mfalconer@ounce.org or 850-921-4494(ext. 134).  Our thanks to all who attended!

Discussion Topic:  The Development of Nationally Consistent Environmental Health Indicators in the Florida EPHT Program

The second brown bag lunch session for 2008 was held on Friday, September 19, 12:00 - 1:00.  This presentation focused on the use of indicators and geographic information systems (GIS) in the Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Network.   The Florida EPHT Program is a CDC-funded cooperative agreement to improve surveillance of chronic health conditions and potentially associated environmental hazards.  This presentation discussed the national framework used to construct indicators, the multi-partner workgroups used to create the implementation guidance, and the web-based system used to display the indicators with reporting and GIS capabilities.  Chris DuClos, GIS Manager, and Greg Kearney, Environmental Epidemiologist, Division of Environmental Health, Florida Department of Health, led the discussion.  For more information, please contact Rebecca Thomas at the Department of Health.  Our thanks to all who attended!

Essential Skills Workshop:  October 27-29, 2008

Taught by experienced instructors in the field, the workshop is targeted to experienced researchers who want a refresher; new evaluation or program professionals; and those who manage evaluation projects for their organizations.  The content of the workshop was as follows:

DAY 1: Program Evaluation

§     Introduction to Program Evaluation

§     Types of Evaluation

§     Ethical Issues with Human Subjects

§     Planning an Evaluation

 

        DAY 2: Monitoring, Process, and Outcome Evaluation

§     Introduction to Process Evaluation

§     Designing Process Evaluations

§     Introduction to Outcome Evaluation

§     Designing Outcome Evaluations

§     Outcome Monitoring Systems

§     Relating Results to Program Costs

 

        DAY 3: Data Collection Techniques and Using Evaluation Results

§     Data Collection Techniques - Interviews, Focus groups, and Surveys

§     Communicating Evaluation Results

§     Evaluation Utilization

Discussion Topic: Web Based Panels and Survey Research 

The third brown bag lunch session for 2008 was held on Wednesday, December 17, 12:00 - 1:30.  Web-based panels in survey research are growing in popularity.  However, the ability of these panels to meet the scientific standards required in social science research is debatable.  During this session, attendees shared information collected from web-based panel service providers or presented in published sources.  Three service providers that were mentioned during the discussion included e-Rewards, MarketTools, and Knowledge Networks.  Dr. Mary Kay Falconer facilitated the discussion.  For more information, please contact Dr. Falconer at  mfalconer@ounce.org or 850-921-4494(ext. 134).  Our thanks to all who attended!

Future SEA Brown-Bag Lunches

We are asking members of SEA to volunteer to facilitate the discussion and identify their preferred location.  The methods and measurement topics can relate to a project at your place of employment or a topic of interest you would just like to share and discuss with others.  SEA will announce the topic, the facilitator, and the location at least 2 weeks prior to each session.  There might be a short technical reference shared prior to the session and follow-up among those who have a heightened interest after the session. 

If you would like to volunteer for one of the brown bag sessions, OR if you have any recommendations for future workshops (including topics or presenters), please don't hesitate to contact Program Committee Co-Chairs Dr. Constance Bergquist (esdi@talstar.com) or Dr. Tamara Bertrand Jones (tbertrand@admin.fsu.edu).  Thank you!