Website Recognized for Quality Health Information
(News of Note - January 9, 2009) The Texas Heart Institute (THI) at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital has been recognized with four website awards for providing quality health information. Three educational programs were recognized for excellence: the Heart Information Center, Project Heart, and Continuing Medical Education.
The Heart Information Center
The Heart Information Center (HIC) was recognized with an Aesculapius Award of Excellence. The HIC provides lay-oriented information on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease and related health issues. A total of 153 topics are available online in both English and Spanish. “The THI website logged more than 2.8 million visitors in 2008,” explained Ken Hoge, manager of Visual Communication Services. “Over 80% of them visited the HIC and more than 7,000 took our How Healthy is Your Heart? online risk assessment. I am most excited about our latest offering, Ask a Texas Heart Institute Doctor.”
The new
Ask a Texas Heart Institute Doctor feature extends THI’s mission to educate and share knowledge about heart health with the public. Anyone with Internet access can go to the website and ask a question about cardiovascular health or disease. Members of the THI professional staff provide answers which are then posted on the website.
This new service is the concept of Dr. Mehdi Razavi, a cardiologist who specializes in electrophysiology. “Most people already use the Internet to search for health related information. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t get precise information from an expert source,” said Dr. Razavi.
Project Heart The Project Heart website has been awarded both a silver World Wide Web Health Award and an Aesculapius Award of Excellence. Project Heart: Activities for the Classroom is an internet-based educational tool built to meet the curriculum needs of elementary school teachers. The website is also appropriate for school nurses, health educators, home schooling programs, parents, and kids.
As part of the Heart Information Center, Project Heart offers comprehensive materials for grades K through 6 focused on teaching the basics of the cardiovascular system and on promoting healthy lifestyle choices for nutrition and exercise. Lesson plans are supplemented by classroom activities and extensive multimedia resources.
The curriculum is based on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) requirements; however, the materials are suitable for any learning environment. The Spanish version,
Proyecto Corazón: Actividades para el aula, was launched in September 2008 and has already attracted the attention of a worldwide audience
Financial support for Project Heart is provided by the Albert and Margaret Alkek Foundation Project Heart Endowment.
Continuning Medical Education:
CME Wherever...Whenever...
The Texas Heart Institute Continuing Medical Education website was recognized with a World Wide Web Health Award of merit. The site offers more than 90 courses comprising 120 credit hours in cardiovascular-related educational materials for health-care professionals. Participants from all over the world study topics ranging from arrhythmias to stem cell therapy, given by world-renowned THI and guest faculty. The CME program complies with ACCME (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education) guidelines and online materials are free.
The World Wide Web Health Awards recognizes the best web-based health-related content for consumers and professionals. Organized by the Health Information Resource Center, a national clearinghouse for consumer health information programs and materials, the program is the largest of its kind in the United States. Nearly 1,000 entries from hundreds of organizations were submitted in the most recent National Health Information Awards.
The Health Improvement Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality and productivity of America’s health care. The institute conducts forums and sponsors national awards to recognize excellence, including the Aesculapius Award of Excellence for health-related websites.
For Texas Heart Institute media profiles, see
Public Affairs.
