# Presentation: 446269

## MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus en español,  NIHSeniorHealth &  NLM’s main web site

- Joyce Backus
- National Library of Medicine
- National Institutes of Health
- Health & Human Services

**Notes:**
Good morning.  I’m pleased to be able to share with you this morning some of our recent changes to MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus en español, NIHSeniorHealth and our main web site.

## Slide 2

**Notes:**
NIHSeniorHealth had a Capitol Hill launch last October sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin.  It now contains 10 topics, and we have several more in the works.

## Senior-friendly, accessible features

**Large font size, short paragraphs to minimize scrolling**

**Enlarge images**

**Enlarge text size **

**High contrast colors**

**Activate talking Web**

**Notes:**
NIHSeniorHealth is a unique website in several ways.  Based on research with older web site users, it includes special accessibility features including buttons to enlarge fonts, display reverse-contrast fonts, and read the page aloud.  The site, overall, sticks to large fonts, short paragraphs, and large buttons. Images also easily enlarge.

**Large buttons including transcript**

**Open-captioning on videos reinforces**
**audio information**

- Videos with captions

**Notes:**
NIHSeniorHealth has dozens of videos that reinforce or enhance the health content.  These videos run on modem or high-speed lines and have complete text transcripts and open captioning.

## NIHSeniorHealth – exercise stories coming

**Notes:**
Later this year, we will begin featuring exercise stories from seniors who make regular activity a part of their routine.  If you know an active senior who would like to participate, contact us at custserv@nlm.nih.gov . 

## Future NIHSeniorHealth Topics

**Diabetes**
**Macular Degeneration**
**Low Vision**
**Glaucoma**
**Cataracts**
**Diabetic Retinopathy**
**Osteoporosis**
**Paget’s Disease**
**Falls and Fractures**
**Oral Health and Dental Care**
**Sensory Loss Aphasia**

**Sleep and Aging**
**End-of-Life Care**
**Stroke**
**Congestive Heart Failure**
**Heart Disease**
**Complementary and Alternative Medicine**
**Dietary Supplements**
**Shingles**
**About Medicare and Medicaid**

**Notes:**
These are the topics that various NIH institutes are writing specifically for a senior audience.

## MedlinePlus Stats

**Notes:**
Thanks to all your outreach and promotion, more and more Internet users are finding authoritative health information on MedlinePlus.  In the most recent quarter, over 12 million users views over 120,000 MedlinePlus pages.

**News headlines**
- - English (daily)
- - Spanish (weekly)
**Topics (weekly)**
- Diabetes
- Children’s Health
- Women’s Health
- Mental Health
- Seniors’ Health
- Environmental Health

**Notes:**
During the past year, we introduced new weekly emails to highlight particular subject areas including diabetes, children’s, women’s, and senior’s health, mental health, and environmental health.  Each weekly message features links to that week’s news and new links on MedlinePlus.

## Slide 9

**Notes:**
Also new this year are two additional ways to view the MedlinePlus links. We’re now listing “easy-to-read” links together in alphabetical order by subject.  Keep in mind that NLM doesn’t apply readability measures to these documents.  If the authoring organization considers them easy to read, then we label them that way.
We’ve also gathered the talking tutorials and the NIHSeniorHealth topics on a large-font, low-vision list.  

## Slide 10

**Notes:**
Just completed, the entire MedMaster list of drugs from the American Society of Health-System pharmacist is now available on MedlinePlus en español.  There is a toggle on each page to switch between the English and Spanish versions of the same drug information.  MedlinePlus en español now has a daily news feed displaying headlines on the front page.  Users can also subscribe to the news as a weekly email. 

## If you’ve answered...

- THANK YOU

**Notes:**
Some of you may have seen the American Customer Satisfaction Index survey on MedlinePlus or one of our other sites.  This survey is helping us to gather feedback from our users.

## American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

**Notes:**
And, it turns out they are quite satisfied with MedlinePlus, although there is always room for improvement.

- Highest ACSI of all .gov sites

**Notes:**
In fact, MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en español scored the highest on this Index of any participating government website.

## MedlinePlus Go Local Today

- NCHealthInfo
- 2000/01 feasibility study
- 2002 system development, resource collection, outreach
- Feb 2003 – release
- 200,000 pages month
- 2,500 sites
- Missouri Community Connection
- Began in 1998
- Summer/Fall 2003 –vocabulary mapping, record review, and system changes
- March 2004 – linked to MedlinePlus
- 5,000 health services sites

**Notes:**
The Go Local project is an important new component of NLM’s partnership with local libraries and other organizations. As you are well-aware, NCHealthInfo is our flagship, pilot, pioneer site.  The UNC staff has bravely gone where no other library had gone before working with the MedlinePlus vocabulary and mapping it to local services terms.  The site has been available to the public since Feb of 2003 and now serves up over 200,00 pages per month.

Just as remarkable as the UNC effort is the University of Missouri’s Community Connection.  As many organizations have,  Missouri, long ago bought into the concept of providing state citizens with electronic access to services information.  We began working with them last year as they undertook a tremendous effort to map the InfoLine vocabulary they have used to the MedlinePlus health topics.  They also quality reviewed their records and made changes to their oracle-based system to accommodate linking to and from MedlinePlus.  

## Keys to success

- Institutional/organizational commitment
- Dedicated staff
- Services, not health information
- Vigilance
- Community outreach and partnerships
- Feedback, evaluation and improvements

**Notes:**
Based on the experience gained by working with North Carolina and Missouri go local sites and our experience with web sites through MedlinePlus, here are some best practices, keys to success for a viable go local site.  Among other things, they must show institutional commitment and provide some dedicated staff.

## Alabama

- University of Alabama Lister Hill Library
- Jefferson & Shelby County Public Library
**Arizona**
- Arizona Health Sciences Library, University of Arizona
**California-  Los Angeles County**
- NexCare Collaborative, Inc
**Four Corners (AZ, CO, NM, UT)**
- Tribal Connections Four Corners Project
**Indiana**
- Ruth Lily Medical Library, Indiana University School of Medicine
**Maryland**
- Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland
**Massachusetts**
- Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School
**Michigan**
- Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University
_**Missouri**_
- University of Missouri Extension
- J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library
_**North Carolina**_
- Health Sciences Library & School of Info. & Library Science, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

**Ohio – Southeast**
- Ohio University Libraries
**Oregon**
- Oregon Health & Science University Library
**South Carolina**
- Libraries of the Medical University of South Carolina
- University of South Carolina School of Medicine
**Texas – Northeast**
- Watson W. Wise Medical Research Library, University of Texas Health Center at Tyler
**Texas – San Antonio Region**
- University of Texas Health Center at San Antonio Libraries
**Wyoming**
- Center for Rural Health Research & Education, University of Wyoming

**Notes:**
Here’s the list of all the go local sites that are live or “in the pipeline.”  Note that UNC and Missouri are already on our map and these others will follow at various paces.  Most of he new sites will be using the NLM-hosted model.  

## American Hospital Directory on MedlinePlus

**Wireframe Draft**

**Notes:**
This summer, we will be launching a new “Find a hospital” feature based on data from the American Hospital Association directory.  These are draft screens of what the site is likely to look like.  Users will be able to search by zip code, name, or city.

## Wireframe Draft

**Wireframe Draft**

**Notes:**
The “Find a Hospital” will include maps and driving directions.

## Out with the old

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov

**Notes:**
During the past year, we took lots of user feedback from surveys to usability to customer service requests and fed it all back in to designing a new organization and look for the NLM web site.

## In with the new

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov

**Notes:**
This design has many new features including daily health news on the front page.
12 major categories to find all of our programs and services
And four pages for specialized categories of users
By popular demand, every page now includes a search box in the top banner.  The home page prominently displays it just under the flash movie banner.

## List of NLM products

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov

**Notes:**
We newly renovated the “list of databases” to make it easier to use.

## Especially for..

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov

**Notes:**
Our testers responded well to these “especially for” pages.  Each one features programs, services and information of special interested to a particular user group, health care professionals, publishers, the public, researchers, and librarians.

## Printer-friendly versions

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov

**Notes:**
NLM’s web site now includes printer-friendly versions that print the content without any sidebars.

## Lots of cross links and bread crumbs for better navigation

- http://www.nlm.nih.gov

**Notes:**
Where useful, pages include a breadcrumb trail to identify the part of the web site where the page resides, and related pages or services in the right-hand column.

## Feedback desired

- Call (888) 346-3656
- Email _[custserv@nlm.nih.gov](mailto:custserv@nlm.nih.gov)_
- Be part of improving NLM products

**Notes:**
Please continue to give us your expert feedback on how we can better serve you and your patrons.