[NIFL-HEALTH:4208] Spanish-language Web site could improve health literacy

From: Hodorowski, Julie K./Sloan-Kettering Institute (hodorowj@MSKCC.ORG)
Date: Fri Oct 17 2003 - 16:23:22 EDT


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Subject: [NIFL-HEALTH:4208] Spanish-language Web site could improve health literacy
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FYI from:
Julie Keany Hodorowski RN, MA
Information Service Manager
Cancer Information Service of New York
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
"A program of the National Cancer Institute: Your link to cancer information."
1-800-4-CANCER  < www.cancer.gov>
___________________________________________________________
Spanish-language Web site could improve health literacy 

October 17, 2003 

The federal General Services Administration on Thursday launched a Spanish-language version of the FirstGov portal, which provides information about government programs and services, including health and medical information, the Los Angeles Times reports (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spanish17oct17,1,5085653.story) (Govindarajan, Los Angeles Times, 10/17). FirstGov en Español (http://www.firstgov.gov/Espanol/index.shtml)
will help drive the movement toward health literacy, Surgeon General Richard Carmona said. 

Health literacy is the knowledge and understanding about things that affect health, which requires access to reliable and current information, Carmona said. The purpose of the site is to help people find information even if they don't necessarily understand the arrangement of federal agencies, (http://fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/1013/web-primero-10-16-03.asp) Federal Computer Week reports (Hardy, Federal Computer Week, 10/16). The site also "serves as a gateway" to Web sites for 55 federal agencies and 37 states and has already linked to more than 100,000 translated government pages.

Based on demand, each agency decides which information to translate, said Teresa Nasif, director of the GSA's federal citizen information center. Because the site directs users to Spanish-language pages, not all content available on the English version of FirstGov will be available on the Spanish-language site, Nasif said (Los Angeles Times, 10/17).

The National Library of Medicine last year introduced a Spanish version of its consumer Web site, MEDLINEplus (http://www.medlineplus.gov/). The site includes an "Español" link on English pages where a Spanish translation is available, helping non-Spanish-speaking health care professionals identify appropriate information for patients and their families ((http://ihealthbeat.org/members/basecontent.asp?oldcoll=&program=1&contentid=23731&collectionid=548) (iHealthBeat, 9/10/2002).



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