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Senior Health Site by NIH Reaches First Birthday,
Has Some Growing to Do
By Tucker Sutherland,
Editor, SeniorJournal.com
Oct. 24, 2004 It was
a year ago that the National Institutes of Health introduced their
innovative senior health Website (www.nihseniorhealth.gov),
with its special controls for sound, text size and other viewing
enhancement options. It is a useful and senior-friendly site with lots
of promise, but with a way to go in providing a wide range of health
information for Americas senior citizens.
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Site Opened Oct. 23,
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Sen. Tom
Harkin (D-IA) sits down at a laptop in a Capitol Hill briefing
room to practice using NIHSeniorHealth.gov on the day it was
introduced. His instructors are (from l) NIA director Dr.
Richard Hodes, NLM director Dr. Donald Lindberg and Joyce Backus
of NLM's web management team. |
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As the Nation's leading health research institution, the NIH
must share what it knows with the public about keeping healthy
and dealing with disease, said Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director
of the NIH. This translation of research into everyday use is a
critical part of the NIH's mission. |
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This is not to say
NIHSeniorHealth.gov is not now a useful site. It is. Developed and
managed by the National Institute of Aging and the National Library of
Medicine, both parts of NIH, it was introduced on October 23 of last
year and has slowly added features and information to increase its
value. More than a thousand viewers a day have visited the site during
its first year but it has much more potential.
And, the site is continuing to grow and add new
information, according to Stephanie Dailey, Educational Research
Specialist with NIA. She says they plan to add abut ten new health
topics by the end of the year. Some of those in the planning are on
diabetes, osteoporosis, low vision, aging-related macular degeneration,
diabetic retinopathy, cataract, glaucoma, taking medicines, sleep and
aging, problems with taste, problems with smell, stroke, shingles, dry
mouth, congestive heart failure, falls and fractures, and Paget's
disease of bone.
Also in the works, says Daily, are an interactive
exercise feature and a guide to teach older adults how to use the
Internet and search for credible health information online.
Current topics on the site include Alzheimers
Disease, Arthritis, Balance Problems, Breast Cancer, Caring for Someone
with Alzheimers, Colorectal Cancer, Exercise for Older Adults, Hearing
Loss, Lung Cancer and Prostate Cancer.
Each topic provides general background information,
quizzes, answers to frequently asked questions, open-captioned video
clips, transcripts for the videos, and photos and illustrations with
captions.
Along with the NIA and
the NLM, other NIH sources contributing topics to the web site also
include the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and the National
Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). More
Institutes and Centers will be working with the NIA and the NLM to bring
on the additional topics, they say.
Certainly, with this powerhouse of information
providers, older Americans can trust in the help and advice.
What makes this site extra special for seniors,
however, are the unique technological features designed to meet special
needs of many aging Americans. The medium is not exactly the message but
this one sure makes the message easy to find and comprehend.
Sound, for example, is one of the useful features.
Viewers can choose to have the text on the pages read aloud, or the
sound can be turned off. With the sound on, the viewer just clicks on
the block of copy to be read aloud.
Text size can be enlarged by the click of a button.
A contrast switch turns the background dark and the
type white, making reading easier for many.
Then, too, much of the information is enhanced by
easy to use videos. In the Exercise for Older Adults section, for
example, there is a video on Exercise and Form. And, if you want to see
the transcript of the video, just click a button and it opens in a
window beside the running video, where viewers can read what is being
spoken.
SeniorJournal.com recommends this site, primarily
for the technical enhancements that make it very senior-friendly, but
also its promise. Americas seniors need this site and we hope NIH and
its senior agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, will
provide the focus and resources to increase the content.
The site also needs more visability. If you start
from the National Institutes of Health home page, it is difficult to
find a link to the Senior Health Website. Viewers have to go to the
senior health menu on this site and then click senior health general
before they see a link.
It is much more accessible from MedlinePlus (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/),
the Website for general information and news on health, also provided by
NIH and the National Library of Medicine. The Senior Health Website is
promoted with a graphic in the right-hand column. It gets similar
promotion from the home page of the National Library of Medicine (www.nlm.nih.gov/nlmhome.html).
MedlinePlus is a very useful site for health
information and every senior actually all adults should have it
bookmarked. It I also linked throughout the senior health site.
Copyright: SeniorJournal.com |
