Writing or calling for health information still works, but a mere point and click of a mouse accesses the Internet's constantly growing resources. For example, a search of "diabetes" on Lycos (http://www.lycos.com), a free Internet catalog service indexing nearly 20 million sites, identifies some 4,000 documents. Another popular search engine, Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com), locates a multitude of resources such as how people with diabetes can maintain a vegetarian diet.
The information is there because the need is there. A leading cause of death and disability, diabetes costs the United States nearly $93 billion each year. Treatment--as well as prevention of diabetes onset and complications--requires careful management of nutrition, physical activity, and often medication. The Internet provides information for doing so. It also serves as a starting point for people with diabetes-related risk factors--family history, overweight, race/ethnicity, and age--who are seeking information. Of the 16 million people with diabetes, about half are undiagnosed.
Federal resources on the Internet abound, and nearly all have hyperlinks to other sites. The National Health Information Center (http://nhic-nt.health.org) has a searchable online database of 1,100 organizations offering health information, including Federal clearinghouses and other places with toll-free numbers, plus the latest Healthy People 2000 data on diabetes-related objectives.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (http://www.niddk.nih.gov) home page links to nearly a dozen other Federal sites on the Internet, including the Division of Diabetes Translation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ddt/ddthome.htm). The CDC page in turn links to more sites. The National Eye Institute (http://www.nei.nih.gov) offers information on the ocular complications of diabetes, the leading cause of blindness in adults. The site links to http://vision.arc.nasa.gov/VisionScience/VisionScience.html with pointers to research institutes, bibliographies, journals, organizations, conferences, and newsgroups.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) (http://www.diabetes.org) directs users to affiliates and chapters in more than 800 communities and describes an array of services available. ADA also hosts a forum on America Online, with online chats and self-help schedules. CompuServe, another commercial online service, offers a diabetes forum, and there are dozens of usegroups.
Online diabetes magazines, known as electronic or e-zines, cater to children with diabetes as well as adults. There is even a Virtual Diabetic Game (http://www.nd.edu/~hhowisen/virtual.html) whose "object is to get Derwood the Diabetic through 1 adventure-packed day without ending up in the hospital." The Diabetes Mall on the Net (http://diabetesnet.com) takes orders for products and services and presents information on research findings as well as recreational opportunities such as diabetes summer camps.
Many more sites are under construction or go online every day. CDC, for example, soon will unveil statistical information by State. All only a point and click away...
The Internet grows exponentially, so every day there are more health information resources and services for consumers and health professionals. To avoid information overload, define terms carefully and start with indexing services like Lycos (http://www.lycos.com) or Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com). Use directories and databases. Read the abstracts and click on links to sites of interest. Save the best sites as bookmarks. Remember to check gopher and FTP sites in addition to the World Wide Web. And try electronic mailing lists and usegroups, too.
Visit Internet sites sponsored by the Federal government, State health departments, and voluntary and professional organizations. Commercial companies, universities, and other nonprofit organizations abound on the `Net as well. Some examples:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Home Page
http://www.os.dhhs.gov
National Health Information Center
http://nhic-nt.health.org
National Library of Medicine
http://nlm.nih.gov
New York State Department of Health
gopher://gopher.health.state.ny.us
Community Health Management Information Systems Resource Center
http://chmis.org
'96 Partnerships Conference: Partnerships for Networked Consumer Health Information,
May 12-14, 1996, Rancho Mirage, CA.
http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/confrnce/partnr96
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