NetWellness

Contact: George Stamatis, 216-368-3635, gxs18@po.cwru.edu

Posted 11/6/97

NetWellness offers health info via the Web

Health information is available to Ohioans at the touch of a computer mouse through a consumer health information service called NetWellness. Originally developed by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, this service now has the added expertise of health professions faculty from Case Western Reserve University and Ohio State University.

At an October 31 news conference in downtown Cleveland, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) announced that Ohioans will have access to NetWellness through the state's public libraries.

Guiding CWRU's involvement with NetWellness is Susan Wentz, assistant professor of family medicine and director of the School of Medicine's Urban Area Health Education Center.

Wentz sees the school's involvement in NetWellness as a natural extension of the school's current outreach programs.

"It can expand what we're able to offer the community with our new partners and this new and exciting way of reaching all people," she said.

photo by Mike Sands/IRIS

The NetWellness project took center stage in an exhibit at the Ohio Library Council's October 31 meeting in downtown Cleveland. Event participants shown here are (from left to right) Susan Wentz, director of NetWellness at CWRU; C.J. Prentiss, state representative; Thomas Nosek, associate dean of biomedical information technologies; Hope Taft, co-founder of several prevention organizations in Ohio and the wife of Ohio Secretary of State Bob Taft; and Carol Roddy, executive director of the Ohio Public Library Information Network.

Wentz added that NetWellness complements the University's and the medical school's rapidly developing electronic initiatives under the guidance of Ray Neff, vice president for information services, and Thomas Nosek, the medical school's new associate dean for biomedical information technologies.

NetWellness is accessible via the World Wide Web at http://www.netwellness.org, or from the OPLIN home page at http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us. Ohioans who do not have a home Internet connection may access the Web through OPLIN connections available on 249 local library systems in more than 700 communities.

Resources available on NetWellness include text from seven medical books, more than 300 magazines, thousands of consumer booklets, and numerous health literature indices, such as Medline. CWRU, OSU, and Cincinnati will also develop original content and provide expert services for popular NetWellness features, such as "Ask an Expert." In this service, health professionals provide answers to users' health questions.

State Representative C.J. Prentiss (8th House district), who was at the news conference, said "Now the best medical information available in Ohio can be found by all residents. If we are to have impact on the health needs of our citizens, prevention and information must be available."

NetWellness began as a $1.5 million demonstration project in southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana, involving the U.S. Department of Commerce and the University of Cincinnati, in cooperation with more than 40 other partners. NetWellness administrators say that the service is accessed nearly 400,000 times monthly from all 50 states, all Canadian provinces, and more than 50 other countries.

-CWRU-