Experimentation and modeling of health care mobilization campaigns

• Grant number: 12/05820-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2012
• End date: September 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health
• Principal Investigator: Eduardo Massad
• Grantee: Alexandre Hannud Abdo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This proposal concerns the organization of a primarily virtual interaction network between health professionals and volunteer participants, for the execution of social experiments which will allows us to collect data about the variation of individual behavior under different social contexts. From the analysis of such data we will obtain relations which are relevant for the formulation of public policy related to health education and behavior change programs, as well as having intrinsic value to the study of social behavior. We intend to advance, with this work, the scientific and application potential of social experiments in health care that make use of computer networks, such as those performed by Centola[4,5], Weitzman et al[8], and Freifeld et al[11]. We shall dispose, a much as possible, of resources already available, shared in reciprocity with other institutions, so that we may conduct these experiments in large scale and obtain samples sufficiently representative for the purposes of the project. As part of performing the experiments, an on-line platform will be developed that enables partners to make contact with society, and which will remain available to them, as well as the communities started by the project.