THOUGHTS & OPINIONS
Promoting Women’s Health Via the World Wide Web

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.1998.tb02629.xGet rights and content

Women, as a segment of society at risk for chronic illnesses and complications from normal life events, such as pregnancy and menopause, are seeking information to improve their health status. One tool on the World Wide Web provided by a team of Ohio health care providers, including nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and dietitians, is the Ask an Expert feature of NetWellness®. Designed as a consumer health information resource, NetWellness (www.netwellness.org) also is a valuable tool to health care professionals.

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NetWellness

NetWellness is a web-based resource for obtaining general and personalized expert information about health. Developed as a consumer health information resource by a team from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and initially funded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the State of Ohio, the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, this resource provides various forms of health care information (Guard et al.,

Ask an Expert for Women’s Health Areas

Ask an Expert allows the computer user to go on-line through the World Wide Web and log onto any of the topics listed. Although new experts and content areas are being added, the current experts address the following 20 topics: AIDS/HIV; arthritis and rheumatoid diseases; asthma and respiratory diseases; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; bleeding disorder; breast cancer; breastfeeding and newborn care; children’s development and health; children’s urinary and genital problems; diet and

Interdisciplinary Approach

NetWellness provides a collaborative and interdisciplinary team approach among pharmacists, nurses, physicians, and dietitians for addressing women’s health issues. This interdisciplinary approach allows the experts to make a referral to another topic area should a consumer ask a question that crosses more than one area. Alternatively, the user can pose the same question to more than one expert to get a second source of information.

The most common situation for making a referral is when a user

Interinstitutional Approach

Plans are under way not only to expand women’s health topics but also to increase the number of general health topics. Through partnering with 20 to 40 additional health care professionals from Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University, the complement of NetWellness experts will span almost any health topic. Under this interinstitutional model, three Ohio Research I universities will be brought together to provide consumers with information about health.

Common Women’s Health Questions

Despite the numerous resources on the topic of maternal-child health, questions about pregnancy are the most frequently asked among the current NetWellness content areas. Questions about pregnancy generally are related to promoting behaviors that will achieve a healthy outcome for the newborn and the mother. Questions range from “how do I know if I am pregnant?” to “can I get pregnant while breastfeeding?” to “can I continue to breastfeed while pregnant?” along with specific medication and

NetWellness’s Future for Women’s Health

Immediate plans are to augment the women’s health area of NetWellness by adding a female obstetrician/gynecologist from the University of Cincinnati. Along with several colleagues, she will coordinate additional women’s health topics, including menopause, osteoporosis, and hormone replacement therapy. More health care professionals from Ohio State University and Case Western Reserve University will be added to expand this area.

Knowledge Enterprise for Nursing

Success in the next millennium will be based on access to information. Health care is becoming more of a knowledge business, and the pharmacist, nurse, physician or dietitian is becoming a knowledge worker. Any health care professional can use NetWellness or direct a client to use it as a quick, reliable way of finding health information. Information about whether to use hormone replacement therapy or the latest information about HPV can be found through www.netwellness.org. Recently published

Acknowledgment

The authors received an innovative program poster award at the 1997 convention of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses in Washington, DC.

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