Site sorts out Web's tangle of health info
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cta270.htm
The federal government Tuesday unveils a prescription for headaches
caused by the dizzying morass of health information on the Internet.
A new Web site, http://www.healthfinder.gov, offers easy-to-reach
information prepared by health agencies and other reputable sources on
hundreds of health topics.
Log on to the Internet and you can find about 10,000 Web sites devoted
to health topics, says Mary Jo Deering, director of health
communication at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS). "It's like drinking from a fire hose," she says. "You can get
easily thousands of hits but no selectivity, no way to know what the
quality is. You're on your own."
That's why healthfinder is important, says HHS secretary Donna
Shalala. "We're helping people get reliable health information faster
and easier over the Internet," she says. "We're covering a wide range
of information, and we're providing information that people can
trust."
Healthfinder includes:
Links to more than 550 other Web sites with health information,
including federal, state and local agencies, universities and
nonprofit groups. Links to about 500 online documents, including
health publications and technical literature. Connection to
online discussion and self-help groups. Databases that can be
searched by topic. Answers to frequently asked questions on
selected topics.
"It's reputable, reliable, credible information," says Deering, who
chairs a conference on health information this week in Washington,
D.C. "There has been a selection process about who and what shows up
on our site. People can jump from us out into the universe of the
Internet, but if they feel overwhelmed by what's out there, this is a
good starting point. They may find everything they need."
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
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