Health InformationAired October 31 and November 1, 1998 Listen to the show. Top of Page Related LinksFor further information, try these Web sites:
The InterviewUse the RealAudio Player to listen in as IOTA talks with Vic Strecher. This IOTA interview took place in September 1998. How did you get interested in using new media to promote public health? What ideas motivated the kiosk project? What kind of reaction have you had to the kiosks and what are your next steps? We are reaching tens of thousands of people every month who are underserved in our population...[To give] one example, we had a small child using the smoking channel. And we have this little button called the scare me button. It's a pretty disgusting button actually - it shows these people who are dead or dying as a result of smoking. And he left without saying a word. He brought his mother back a few hours later, who smokes. And he said, "Mom press that channel and learn how to quit." And sure enough she did. Over 50 percent of our users are children and that's pretty exciting. Also though we have a number of kiosks in senior centers and we're getting tremendous use from seniors as well. I think in the future as the Internet develops more and becomes a richer source of information we'll be able to put all of this information on the Internet. What role does the Internet play in educating people about their health? The use of the Internet for health is increasing faster than suburbia was increasing during the 1950s. More and more people are using the Internet to learn about their health. On the other hand, the Internet is something like the Wild West. There are over 40,000 health home pages on the Internet that we have been able to study. And the majority of them have been found to have some sort of significant inaccuracies. There are documented deaths that have occurred as a result of people using information they have obtained in the health area from the Internet...So the question is how do you sort out the wheat from the chafe? We have to help people find better Internet channels." What kinds of approaches might improve the quality of health information on the Internet? What influence is the information revolution having on health care? "...C. Everett Coop said an interesting thing recently. He said in the Journal of the American Medical Association that in the past he though Health Care reform would change the way we communicate with patients. Now, he thinks with the information technology revolution, the way we communicate is going to change health care reform." What role do you see for the private sector in delivering public health information?
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Last Updated October 30, 1998 |
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