N.C. Opens National Window To Free Health Information Web Site Launched In Pittsboro, To Show Small-Town Access
Reprinted with permission from The Herald-Sun.
Jim Shamp, The Herald-Sun
1/15/2003
PITTSBORO - A vast array of free health information was unveiled to North Carolina residents Tuesday in a landmark Internet pilot project designed to ultimately streamline all Americans' access to medical knowledge.
The Web site - www.nchealthinfo.org - was officially "booted" at the Pittsboro Memorial Library to emphasize its ability to reach people in every small town and rural community in the state.
The advertising-free site puts professionally screened information, illustrations and answers to almost any medical question within reach of any Internet-linked computer. People who don't have such links at home still can use the site at the nearest public library, without charge.
It's unique in seamlessly merging community information, such as local cancer support groups, with the huge MedlinePlus database - the National Library of Medicine's consumer site for health information on 577 diseases and conditions.
Specialists at the UNC Health Sciences Library and the university's School of Information and Library Science labored for many months to create the community-specific information in www.nchealthinfo.org.
Users can call up a North Carolina map, click their cursor on any county or city, and instantly find the closest sites associated with their topic of inquiry, from nutritional counselors to cancer surgeons.
Diana McDuffee, of the university's Health Sciences Library, said $300,000 to $400,000 a year has been allocated for the project development and maintenance, to keep up with the constantly changing local information and its links with the national database.
The North Carolina part of the site actually was linked to the national database last month, and logged more than 25,000 visits in its first day, said Elmira Mangum, UNC associate provost for finance.
"It's friendly," she said, noting that her son had an appointment at a sports medicine clinic Tuesday for a football injury and prepared himself by accessing the new Web site. "And it's available 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
UNC library officials said the state site will be continually expanded, with plans for adding the local information in Spanish. The MedlinePlus database already includes an easy-to-select Spanish-language option, making the general information accessible to the state's fast-growing Hispanic population.
"This hot line is core public health," Leah Devlin, state health director, told nearly 100 people crowded into a meeting room of the Chatham County town's library. "This is our business in public health."
Devlin, a dentist and former Wake County health director, said she remembered a woman coming into the Raleigh dental clinic several years ago insisting on seeing a dentist "because she didn't want to have any more babies."
After extensive questioning, Devlin said, she was able to determine that the woman believed, "She needed to have her 'tooth tied' so she wouldn't have more babies."
That woman might have benefited from this Web site, according to Devlin, because she obviously wanted her fallopian "tubes tied" as a contraception method, but misunderstood what she'd heard about it.
"This is the first step toward bridging the gap between health information and local health services needed by patients and their families," said Donald Lindberg, director of the National Library of Medicine.
"The public can and should understand the nature of their illnesses and what should be done about them," said the nation's top health librarian. He said even though the MedlinePlus information is geared to consumers, it's highly respected for its medical accuracy.
In fact, Lindberg said, research conducted by the national library shows that 20 percent to 25 percent of its users are doctors, "probably because not too many know the complete background on 577 diseases."
North Carolina's addition of localized information will allow users to find out things like where they can go to get a vaccination or test, as well as what's involved, he added.
"It shouldn't surprise anyone that North Carolina is the first to show the rest of the country how this can work," said U.S. Rep. David Price, D-4th District, pledging to recommend that his constituents "bookmark" the site for fast and regular access to quality health information.
The North Carolina model, the first of its kind, is to be tweaked and unveiled in other states throughout 2003, said Lindberg.
Other speakers at the event included State Rep. Joe Hackney; State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird; Carol Jenkins, director of the UNC Health Sciences Library; and Joanne Marshall, dean of the UNC School of Information and Library Science.
© Durham Herald Company, Inc.
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