The health sector is no exception to this trend, and government agencies, professional associations, voluntary organizations, hospitals and managed care, and self-help and support groups are going online to reach both professional and consumer audiences. And those audiences are growing at an increasing rate as more workplaces, libraries, schools, and homes are wired for Internet access—the recently released Neilsen/CommerceNet survey estimated the number of Internet users in the United States and Canada in 1995 at 23 million, up 50 percent from 1994.

This issue of Prevention Report focuses on Healthy People 2000 on the World Wide Web. It surveys a selection of Internet sites related to the Healthy People 2000 initiative and its 22 priority areas to illustrate the breadth and depth of the resources being made available online to support the national disease prevention and health promotion objectives.

Consortium members, Federal and State agencies, and other organizations are offering online access to the latest studies, journal articles, and statistics; consumer information such as brochures, interactive health risk appraisals, and support group participation and expert advice by e-mail; and professional and organizational resources such as online discussion forums, continuing education, conference and seminar schedules, and grant announcements.

Healthy People 2000 has its own web site. Visit http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/pubs/hp2000/ (hosted by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP]) for the basic facts about this collaborative initiative that involves almost 600 national organizations and Federal and State government agencies. Take an online look at the Midcourse Review and 1995 Revisions, recent data from the priority area and cross-cutting progress reviews, links to all the Public Health Service agencies that have lead responsibility for priority areas and the Consortium organizations that are online, and the 1996 Healthy People 2000 publications list. (By the time this issue goes to press, an online version of this article containing all the Internet addresses listed below will be available on the web site, so you won’t have to key in any of the Uniform Resource Locators [URLs] to embark on a tour of Healthy People 2000 on the Web.)

Once you begin to visit these selected sites, you will quickly discover that each contains links to other online information resources, including useful Internet indexes and jump lists. (A jump list is a collection of recommended links organized by topic, and may be sponsored by an organization or an individual.) Both indexes and jump lists monitor the Internet for new resources and catalog the information in a consistent way.

There are about 20 major indexes, such as AltaVista™ (http://altavista.digital.com) and Yahoo!™ (http://www.yahoo.com), that serve as card catalogs for the literally millions of web pages, documents, and mail messages stored on thousands of Internet server computers. Most indexes provide both simple and boolean search options, but information overload can be a problem. For example, a simple search of AltaVista™ for the term "AIDS" identified about 100,000 files. A search for "healthy people 2000" in Yahoo!™ yielded over 1,400 matches with Federal, university, voluntary, and other sites.

If the Internet indexes are card catalogs, good jump lists are private libraries of carefully selected information sources. The Medical Matrix (http://www.slackinc.com/matrix/) provides "selected, ranked, peer-reviewed, annotated, continuously updated, full-text patient care resources," with the Specialty and Disease Categorized Information list linking to some 2,200 entries. The Virtual Hospital™ (http://www.vh.org/navigation/vh/textbooks/adult_provider_index.html) specializes in online multimedia textbooks for health professionals. Tile.Net/Lists (http://tile.net/listserv/medicine.html) facilitates access to such sources as medical libraries and discussion groups. The International Network for Interfaith Health Practices (http://www.interaccess.com/ihpnet/health.html) provides "Express Links" to "pre-surfed," direct routes to health information and other links for "less focused browsing" in such categories as health reference, medical libraries, and behavioral resources. Cool Medical Site of the Week (http://www.maxface.com/~wcd/cmsotw.html) recognizes a potpourri of sites for consumers and professionals. The American Public Health Association (http://www.apha.org/resources. html) links to many resources, as does the Hardin Meta Directory (http://www.arcade.uiowa.edu/hardin-www/md.html). Consumer-oriented sites in the Department of Health and Human Services are cataloged in the HHS Consumer Information database (http://chttp://www.arcade.uiowa.edu/hardin-www/md.html).

What kinds of information and services will you actually find on the Internet sites indexed, cataloged, and linked so carefully? Here are just a few examples:
The American Medical Association provides Adolescent Health On-Line (http://www.ama-assn.org/adolhlth/adolhlth.htm), including Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS), with partial funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). Vision checks for children and adults can be done online at Prevent Blindness America (http://www.prevent-blindness.org/). The American Diabetes Association
offers a self-scored online diabetes risk test (http://http://www.diabetes.org/ada/risktest.asp). Through e-mail, the American Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org) automatically informs the public and members about updates to PsychNET, an Internet service that has online referrals to psychologists, information kits, news stories, employment opportunities, and PsychoCrawler, which currently indexes APA and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) web sites.

Florida’s Public Health Information Network (http://fcn.state.fl.us/hrs_hsi) offers a weekly update about current epidemiologic events, information about public health roles and programs, county and statewide data, training conferences, job postings, staff directory, advice on how to get vital records, and more. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (http://www. nami.org) site has an array of information, from medical alerts and book reviews to conferences and events. And you’ll also find news from the National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov/news/), Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/mmwr.html), clinical practice guidelines from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/cpgsix.htm), and grant announcements from government agencies (GrantsNet, http://www.hhs.gov/grantsnet/).

This article is intended as the beginning of a jump list for Healthy People 2000, a selection from among the many Internet resources provided by or useful to the Healthy People 2000 Consortium and the public health community working to achieve the Year 2000 disease prevention and health promotion objectives—whether national, State, or local goals, whether targeted to the general or a specific population. It organizes the resources by Healthy People priority area and highlights some of the information or services available at each, including links to still more resources.

To locate more national organizations and government agencies providing information on a particular health topic, try one of the jump lists mentioned above or check one of the Internet sites listed in a priority area below. You can also search the Health Information Resources database online at the National Health Information Center (NHIC) (http://http://www.health.gov/nhic). The database contains both conventional and Internet (if available) contact information for 1,100 organizations. Among the online publications at NHIC, you’ll also find the Winter 1996 issue of Prevention Report on "Networked Health Information Is Prevention Power!," which provides more background on the Internet and the issues that online information providers and users will face in the future.

We encourage you to join those health professionals and policy makers—as well as consumers of all ages—who are turning to the Internet and the World Wide Web for information. The increasingly rich and accessible health information resources on the Internet will play a pivotal role in shaping both personal and public health decisionmaking in the future, including the forthcoming Healthy People 2010 initiative.

Note: The URLs listed in each priority area actually begin with http://, but we have omitted it for space reasons; also, newer web browsers do not require you to enter http://. Some web servers are case sensitive (capital letters matter) and some require more complete information (trailing slash, name of default file) than others; we’ve presented the shortest form of each URL that worked when we tested it.

The lead agency or the organization within the lead agency with specific responsibility in each priority area is denoted by an asterisk (*). Some priority areas have co-lead agencies.

American College of Sports Medicine
http://www.acsm.org

CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/nccdhome.htm

Physical Activity and Health Network (PAHnet)
www.pitt.edu/~pahnet

Lack of regular physical activity claims about 250,000 lives per year in this country. In this information age, trends show that more people are taking up sedentary lifestyles. Public health, medical, and mental health professionals recognize the vital importance of physical activity and fitness for the general population.

The lead agency for this priority area is the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (PCPFS). CDC serves as the science advisor. These two agencies posted Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General online even before it was published in hard copy. PCPFS also has available an online text version of How to Celebrate National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Within CDC, the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) lists online its study of physical inactivity and cardiovascular health and chronic conditions. NCCDPHP and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) collaborated on and helped disseminate online a recommendation that every adult should accumulate 30 minutes or more of daily moderate-intensity physical activity.

Consortium member ACSM provides electronic abstracts of its journal, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, for its users. ACSM also features an online version of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Development Conference Statement on Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Health.

The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance site features research, information on its national convention, and Physical Best At A Glance.

The PAHnet home page offers news of current research, activity and health recommendations, reference material, professional organizations, online journals and listservs. PAHnet also offers a directory of professionals in the field, including e-mail addresses. Several Consortium members are represented on PAHnet.

American Dietetic Association
www.eatright.org

American Heart Association
www.amhrt.org

Food and Drug Administration*
www.fda.gov

International Food Information Council
ificinfo.health.org

NIH National Cancer Institute 5 a Day Program
http://www.nci.nih.gov/

NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases*
www.niddk.nih.gov

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov

Data show that 34 percent of adults and 21 percent of adolescents in America are overweight. This health risk is even more common among black women and Mexican-American women.

The lead agencies in the Federal Government for the nutrition priority area are the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at NIH. FDA provides information about nutrition, food labeling, and food safety on the Internet, and also publishes new regulations. FDA also posts electronic notices of videoconferences. NIDDK maintains hypertext links to its Weight-control Information Network (WIN) and has the Sisters Together campaign, a WIN project aimed at black women 18 to 35 years old.

On its web site, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) provides information about its 5 a Day program, including recipes and tips on how to integrate the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables into a daily diet. ODPHP links to the 1995 Dietary Guidelines for Americans in plain, hypertext, and Adobe Acrobat formats. On the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion web page, the Interactive Food Guide Pyramid shows with color graphics and instructions on how to use the food guide in daily eating.

The American Dietetic Association’s (ADA) web site includes The Good News Guide for Healthy Women, which discusses diseases that may be associated with food choices. Hot Topics electronically communicates congressional phone numbers and addresses to urge ADA members to get in touch with their representatives.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) web site provides Guidelines for Diet, Nutrition, and Cancer Prevention that are consistent with the 1995 Dietary Guidelines. ACS also features a fact sheet on diet and nutrition services for cancer patients.

The American Heart Association (AHA) site features Heart Power!, a program to educate youth about how to lead a heart healthy life. The International Food Information Council divides the information on its web site into sections for reporters, health professionals, educators, parents, and consumers. Topics run the gamut from trans fatty acid research to bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

American Dental Association Online
www.ada.org

American Cancer Society
www.cancer.org

American Heart Association
www.amhrt.org

American Lung Association
www.lungusa.org

CDC Office on Smoking and Health* Tobacco Information & Prevention Sourcepage
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/osh/tobacco.htm

Food and Drug Administration
www.fda.gov

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
www.rwjf.org/

Use of tobacco products is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than 400,000 deaths each year (about one out of five deaths) and more than $50 billion in health care costs. Environmental tobacco smoke exposure also is a significant health hazard, causing 3,000 lung cancer deaths per year among nonsmokers. Although progress has been noted for nearly all the tobacco objectives, achieving the year 2000 targets may be difficult—recent data show an increase in smoking prevalence among high school seniors. Every day, another 3,000 young people become regular smokers, and nearly 1,000 of them eventually will die as a result of their smoking.

The lead agency is CDC, Office on Smoking and Health. The CDC Tobacco Information & Prevention Sourcepage offers tobacco- and smoking-related news, publications, and educational materials. The site includes quit smoking tips and a listing of all Surgeon General’s reports on smoking. The site links to the Clinical Practice Guidelines on Smoking Cessation and a You Can Quit Smoking consumer guide from AHRQ, as well as FDA’s web site for information on the agency’s rule to reduce tobacco use among young people.

Users can search a smoking database from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) site. The database contains bibliographic materials on the smoking of tobacco and illegal substances.

The ACS web site provides information on tobacco use prevention and cessation and describes its annual Great American Smokeout and Great American Smoke-Scream events. ADA ONLINE, the American Dental Association’s home page, has a searchable database of articles, news releases, reports, guidelines, and publications on tobacco and nicotine, as well as sections for professionals and consumers. The AHA web site features a new question concerning some aspect of fighting heart disease and stroke each week.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has as one of its five priorities "reducing the harm caused by tobacco," recently published online the Media Resource Guide on Tobacco. The guide links visitors with experts on tobacco issues who are funded by the foundation. Their expertise includes working with community coalitions within the foundation’s SmokeLess States program on strategies to prevent tobacco use and initiating national media and advocacy campaigns through the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The eye-catching icon "When You Can’t Breathe, Nothing Else Matters" greets visitors to the home page of the American Lung Association (ALA), an online resource for information on asthma and other lung diseases, tobacco control, and environmental health. Visitors can subscribe to the ALA’s monthly e-mail–based Breath Easy/Asthma Digest.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving
www.gran-net.com/madd/madd.htm

National Families in Action
www.emory.edu/NFIA

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Publications/Databases
www.niaaa.nih.gov/

NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse
www.nida.nih.gov/NIDAhome.html#Communications

SAMHSA National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
www.health.org

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration*
www.samhsa.gov

Alcohol and other drug abuse undermines citizens’ health directly and indirectly. Substance abuse is estimated to be the actual cause of some 120,000 deaths per year, with 100,000 attributed to alcohol and 20,000 to other drug use. Substance abuse is associated with many different diseases and social problems, including HIV/AIDS transmission, unintentional injury, suicide, violence, school failure, unintended pregnancy, and more.

SAMHSA is the lead agency for this priority area and has a home page that offers programmatic and funding information, as well as current statistical information such as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse on the prevalence, patterns, and consequences of drug and alcohol use and abuse in the general U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population age 12 and over.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) site features full-text versions of the quarterly bulletin Alcohol Alerts and overviews of chapters from Alcohol Health & Research World, NIAAA’s quarterly scientific journal. Online databases include the ETOH database, a computerized bibliographic file covering alcohol-related biomedical and behavioral research, and Quick Facts, an electronic bulletin board that provides data on a number of alcohol topics.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) site’s Communications and Documents page offers users the opportunity to join an announcements mailing list and to read media advisories, the latest issue of NIDA Notes, congressional testimony, speeches, and director’s reports. The site also offers publications, grant and contract information, and listings of NIDA workgroups.

NCADI is the most extensive Federal resource of current information on alcohol and drug-related subjects. NCADI’s PREVLINE (Prevention Online) has a special section for children, provides online forums and searchable bibliographic research databases, links to public and private sites, and offers publications and other documents, as well as data and public information and education campaign materials. NCADI is sponsored by SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) offers advice on how the web visitor can be part of the solution, plus statistics and links to other sites. Every Tuesday experts answer questions about drugs at the National Families in Action site, which also links to specific cultural/ethnic groups for information and help. The Web of Addictions seeks to counter the misinformation and pro-drug use messages in some web sites and usenet news groups. Join Together Online is a resource center and meeting place for communities working to reduce the harm associated with the use of illicit drugs, excessive alcohol, and tobacco.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
www.acog.com/

American Society for Reproductive Medicine
www.asrm.com

Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
www.arhp.org

CDC Health Information
http://www.cdc.gov/health/diseases.htm

CDC Maternal Health
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/m_infant.htm

NIH National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/

Office of Population Affairs*
www.dhhs.gov/progorg/opa

Planned Parenthood Federation
www.ppfa.org/ppfa/index.html

The family planning objective to avoid unintended pregnancies in adolescents and older women is vital to the health of our Nation. It is estimated that between one and two million additional unintended pregnancies would occur each year if subsidized family planning services were not available.

The Office of Population Affairs (OPA), Office of Public Health and Science, has lead agency responsibility for family planning. On its web page, OPA provides policy information on the prevention of unintended pregnancies, including its grant support for family planning and adolescent family life programs. It also offers information on trends in adolescent pregnancy, service and publication information for its OPA Clearinghouse, and links to other government and national resources.

Selecting "Health Information" from the CDC Home Page offers topic-driven access to information from many CDC centers; the index of diseases and health risks includes specific population information on Infants’ and Children’s Health and Women’s Health, as well as a section on Immunization.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) uses its web site to publish patient education materials, some in audiovisual formats, and material for professionals. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) offers information on current
issues in reproductive medicine for both patients and professionals.

The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) web site offers online information and materials related to the Better Choice, Better Health national education campaign and the National Adolescent Reproductive Health Partnership. ARHP’s journal, Health and Sexuality, is also online.

Planned Parenthood also provides a broad range of information relating to reproductive health, family planning, and family communication; of special note is an HTML version of How To Be a Good Parent. The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) promotes comprehensive education about sexuality, and its site features education programs and guidelines as well as fact sheets. SIECUS provides online and via fax a bi-weekly resource for health educators called SHOP Talk (School Health Opportunities and Progress) Bulletin.

Many States also have family planning information available on their health department web page. Colorado, for instance, provides resource information on women’s health services and related telemedical care.

American Psychological Association
www.apa.org/

The Arc
TheArc.org/welcome.html

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
www.nami.org/

National Mental Health Association
http://www.nmha.org/

NIH National Institute of Mental Health*
www.nimh.nih.gov/

SAMHSA Knowledge Exchange Network
www.mentalhealth.org

Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network
www.wpic.pitt.edu/stanley/

Approximately 41 million American adults have had a mental disorder at one time during their lives. Children—approximately 7.5 million of them—also suffer from disorders such as autism, depression, and attention deficit disorder. The costs of mental disorders are about $75 billion a year.

SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and NIH’s NIMH are the lead agencies for this priority area. On its Mental Health Information Page, SAMHSA gives background information on its one-stop gateway, the new National Mental Health Services Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN). KEN offers a searchable database of mental health resources and a toll-free line to make available current information on Federal and State mental health service programs to consumers, families, health care and support providers, policymakers, and insurers.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) web site has fact sheets in English, French, and Spanish to help children and their families. AACAP sponsors 45 committees that investigate special areas of interest such as substance abuse and HIV. APA sponsors a refereed electronic journal, Psycoloquy, which has a readership of 20,000. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) web site has information on diseases, medications, and research, and links to such sites as the Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network, a joint project between NAMI and the Biological Psychiatry Branch of NIMH.

The National Mental Health Association (NMHA) provides the Mental Health Jumplist, a listing of other sources on the Internet. The Arc of the United States site invites users to participate in its discussion board, where people can meet other web visitors, discuss issues, and share
information.

Hawaii
www.hawaii.gov/health/index.html

Massachusetts
www.magnet.state.ma.us/dph/dphhome.htm

CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control*
www.cdc.gov/ncipc/ncipchm.htm

The United States ranks first among industrialized nations in rates of violent deaths, with homicide and suicide claiming more than 50,000 lives each year. An additional 2.2 million people are injured by violent assaults. Strategies for addressing violent and abusive behavior must include the Federal, State, and local governments and the efforts of private organizations throughout the country.

The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) in CDC has lead responsibility for the violent and abusive behavior priority area. Within NCIPC, the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) deals with youth violence, family and intimate relations, suicide, and firearms injury. DVP puts publications on the web, such as The Prevention of Youth Violence: A Framework for Community Action, which identifies promising trends to prevent youth violence, and Youth Suicide Prevention Program: A Resource Guide, which assesses programs to prevent suicide among adolescents and young adults. Injury-related web sites are also listed.

Seven Federal agencies make up Pavnet Online, which is a ‘virtual library’ of information about violence and youth at risk. The searchable database has information on 126 Federal and foundation funding sources, 533 program descriptions and contact sources, and 332 files in the Technical Assistance and Curriculums directory.

The National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA) has listed the indicators of child abuse on its web site. NCPCA provides information on the link between domestic violence and the child and invites users to call for a fact sheet on the topic. A project by Hawaii Head Start, Focus on Prevention, found that home visits by paraprofessionals reduce child abuse and improve parent-child bonding. NCPCA used this study to enter into a partnership with the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities and launch the Healthy Families America program, for which written material is available over the Internet.

Massachusetts has the federally funded Weapons-Related Injury Surveillance System that keeps files on gunshot and sharp instrument wounds treated in that State’s emergency departments.

Health Resources and Services Administration*
www.hrsa.dhhs.gov

Healthy Cities Online
www.healthycities.org

Office of Minority Health Resource Center
www.omhrc.gov/

Several of the objectives in the priority area of Educational and Community-Based programs focus on early childhood development, healthy schools, and high school completion. A risk reduction objective for Healthy People 2000 is to increase the high school graduation rate to at least 90 percent, which would reduce risks for multiple problem behaviors and poor mental and physical health. In 1989, only 54 percent of Hispanic and 76 percent of black youth aged 20 through 21 had graduated from high school with a regular diploma. Consortium members are working to achieve these objectives by implementing programs in schools, worksites, and communities.

Lead agencies for this priority area are CDC and HRSA. At CDC, NCCDPHP’s Comprehensive Approaches web pages cover comprehensive school health education, getting research into the classroom (including prevention curricula), community health promotion, efforts targeting older adults, prevention centers, and more. HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) web pages feature descriptions of programs and the people they serve; for example, community health centers, migrant health centers, and homeless children. This section links to the Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities Initiative, which is the community-based, prevention-focused program established in coordination with MCHB. This page offers the user downloadable files of Healing Fractured Lives: How Three School-Based Projects Approach Violence Prevention and Mental Health Care, and An Idea Book: Linking Community Health Centers with Schools Serving Low-Income Children.

The Office of Minority Health Resource Center features legislation, initiatives, contacts at the Federal, regional, and State level, and issues of its newsletter, Closing the Gap.

Healthy Cities Online is the new website sponsored by the Coalition for Healthy Cities and Communities in the Unied States, which seeks to focus attention and resources on improving the health and quality of life of communities. The site’s emphasis is offering online technical assistance and self-directed learning for motivated leaders and partners in the Healthy Cities movement.

The Washington State Department of Health features both Public Health links and World Wide Web tools that enable visitors to find out more, for example, about radiation exposure from the Hanford nuclear site.

CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control*
www.cdc.gov/ncipc/ncipchm.htm

Consumer Product Safety Commission
www.cpsc.gov

HRSA Children’s Safety Network
www.edc.org/HHD/csn

Indian Health Service
http://www.ihs.gov/FacilitiesServices/AreaOffices/Tucson/TucRec.asp

National Fire Protection Association
http://www.nfpa.org/

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
www.nhtsa.dot.gov

National SAFE Kids Campaign
www.oclc.org/safekids

National Safety Council
www.nsc.org

University of Pittsburgh Injury Control Resource Information Network
www.pitt.edu/~icrin/index.htm

About 86,000 injury deaths and more than 145,000 injuries occur each year. The year 2000 goal for reducing unintentional injury deaths was reached in 1993 with 29.2 deaths per 100,000 people.

The lead agency is CDC’s NCIPC, whose site includes studies that evaluate programs designed to promote the use of proven interventions such as smoke detectors, bike helmets, and occupant restraint systems. The web site lists Injury Control Research Centers and other researchers, publications with an order form, State injury mortality data (including several focusing on homicide and suicide among Native Americans) by type of injury, and funding opportunities.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) provides both web and Gopher access to timely product safety alerts and recall notices, as well as many safety publications. Child safety is a special area of emphasis. CPSC supports online reporting of product hazard incidents that result in injury or death. A Success Stories Index details the ‘reinvented’ approach to promoting safety taken by CPSC, which relies as much on partnerships and voluntary standards as on formal regulation.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) offers an online version of its popular newsletter, NHTSA NOW. NHTSA videos that were seen on television have been adapted for computer viewing. All the material from the Highway Safety Public Library can be downloaded in specified formats. Also, the Federal Register Air Bag Warning for cars can be downloaded as a PDF file.

HRSA’s Children’s Safety Network, funded by MCHB, has a site that links to other injury prevention projects, including the Education Development Center’s Building Bridges Between Traffic Safety and Public Health and the network’s own National Injury and Violence Prevention Resource Center. Injuries in the School Environment: A Resource Packet is one of many publications available. Searching on "injury prevention" in the Indian Health Service’s (IHS) web site produces 118 hits on documents and initiatives within IHS. These include several of IHS’s journals and newletters for health professionals, such as the IHS Primary Care Provider, and information on IHS’s special initiatives on injury prevention and related areas such as alcohol abuse.

The National Fire Protection Association site offers news releases, product information, fire safety information, and resource links to other sites on the Internet. The U.S. Fire Administration site links to the National Fire Incident Reporting System and offers public education and fire protection materials through its online publications catalog.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) has an online educational learning system that includes At Issue in Orthopaedics video programs and the Orthopaedic In-training Examination. AAOS’s Prevention of Injuries page features online publications on how to prevent back pain, broken hips, foot problems, playground injuries, sports injuries, and traffic crash injuries. The Journal of the AAOS is also available online. The National SAFE Kids Campaign offers on its home page 10 topics to introduce techniques for keeping children safe. The National Safety Council (NSC) is publicizing the National Automotive Occupant Protection Campaign on the web to inform the public about protecting children and adults from injuries associated with air bags. NSC has placed public service announcements, journal articles, and media releases on the site.

The Center for Injury Research and Control at the University of Pittsburgh maintains the Injury Control Resource Information Network (ICRIN). ICRIN is a dynamic list of key Internet-accessible resources related to injury research and control. An overview of ICRIN’s structure, content, and benefits may be obtained by looking at the online slide show. The INJURY-Listserv invites users to share their experiences in injury research, epidemiology, intervention, prevention, and related issues via e-mail.

CDC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health*
www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html

Department of Energy, Environment, Safety, and Health InfoCenter
http://nattie.eh.doe.gov/portal/

Department of Labor
www.dol.gov/

DOL Mine Safety and Health Administration
www.msha.gov

Work-related injury deaths were 5.6 per 100,000 workers in 1995, and nonfatal injuries were 8.4 per 100 workers in 1994. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the workplace. Overexertion incidents, including musculoskeletal conditions, are the most common lost work-time injury.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), CDC, is the lead agency for this priority area. The NIOSH home page offers online profiles of the 50 States that summarize how workers have died or been injured and the costs of these incidents. The full texts of NIOSH Alerts and recommendations to prevent specific types of injuries and illnesses are available, as well as other publications and ordering information. Visitors also can find information regarding worksite health hazard evaluations, the research priorities that comprise the National Occupational Research Agenda, access to NIOSH databases, guidelines for respirator selection and use, occupational questionnaires, employment and fellowship opportunities, and grants and cooperative agreements. There is also an extensive list of related web sites organized by topic.

The Department of Labor (DOL) web site provides media releases, statutory and regulatory information, and information on programs and activities, searchable by agency and keyword. The DOL’s Mine and Safety Health Administration web site offers information on mining accidents and injuries (including fatal alert bulletins and investigation reports), safety and health topics, statutes and regulations, education and training, and more. At the Department of Energy, an experienced research staff operates the Environment, Safety, and Health InfoCenter, providing multimedia access to Federal, industry, and international information sources.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) What’s New page links to an Employer’s Guide to Teen Worker Safety and Guidelines for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs for Night Retail Establishments. October 1996 news releases posted on the site include Workplace Fire Safety Tips. Fact sheets include recent ones on Occupational Exposure to Formaldehyde, Protecting Community Workers Against Violence, and Silica Dust.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the National Safety Council (NSC) web sites both offer occupational safety and health (OSH) information on a broad range of topics, including current initiatives, government affairs, training and educational programs, and activities of committees of professionals dealing with specific health risks and safety practices.

Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics
www.aoec.org/

CDC National Center for Environmental Health*
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ncehhome.htm

Environmental Health Clearinghouse
infoventures.com/e-hlth/

Environmental Protection Agency
www.epa.gov

Hawaii
www.hawaii.gov/health/index.html

National Conference of State Legislatures
www.ncsl.org/

National Environmental Health Association
http://www.neha.org/

National Toxicology Program
ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/

Environmental risks are underlying factors that contribute to the development of many diseases. Increasing concern has been aroused about disproportionate and adverse effects of environmental effects on low-income and minority populations.

The lead agencies for this priority area are NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH). NIEHS features online data, including abstracts and subscription information from its journal, Environmental Health Perspective. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) has added Health and Safety Chemical Information to the NTP home page, which also provides access to chemical information structures. NTP puts abstracts of recently published NTP reports on its Gopher server. NCEH describes its program on health effects of environmental hazards, which include air pollution, respiratory health, and radiation studies.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has the Hazardous Substance Release/Health Effects Database, a searchable database developed to provide access to scientific and administrative information on the release of hazardous substances from Superfund sites or from emergency events. The Science Corner and Web Site Search of ATSDR is a simple guide to search the World Wide Web for environmental health information and serves as a linkage between human exposure to hazardous chemicals and adverse health effects. ATSDR’s Toxic Substances Public Health Statement Text Search provides electronic files on human health exposure to toxic substances. ToxFAQs are a series of online summaries about hazardous substances being developed by ATSDR’s Division of Toxicology.

The Environmental Health Clearinghouse (EHC) is the only comprehensive information clearinghouse in the United States where callers can get information on any question regarding environmental health. The EHC web site accepts questions via e-mail and offers answers to frequently asked questions and online ordering of fact sheets on a range of topics.

The National Environmental Health Association’s (NEHA) online publications cover 12 categories, including food protection, water and wastewater, toxicology, occupational health and safety, and NEHA learning modules. The National Conference of State Legislatures has created a web site that provides information on its lead hazards project and works with EPA’s electronic Forum on State and Tribal Toxics Action to discuss toxics-related issues. The Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics has the Database of Occupational and Environmental Cases in which profiles of patients are developed and reports are available electronically.

Several States have environmental programs that are listed on their health page. Hawaii has a free service, Himex Materials Exchange, which helps prevent pollution by facilitating no-cost trades among participants who list materials in an interactive database.

Administration on Aging
www.aoa.dhhs.gov/

FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
www.fda.gov/cder/

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
vm.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html

Food and Drug Administration*
www.fda.gov

Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board
http://www.iom.edu/IOM/IOMHome.nsf/Pages/Food+and+Nutrition+Board

NIH National Institute on Aging
www.nih.gov/nia/

Food and drug safety is aimed at protecting the safety of the food supply and ensuring that all people, especially older people, are better educated about proper use of medicines. One Healthy People 2000 objective is to reduce the infections caused by foodborne pathogens (Salmonella species) to an incidence of no more than 16 per 100,000 people. Strategies for implementing this and other objectives are based on Federal, State, and local regulatory and enforcement activities and surveillance techniques and public and professional educational efforts.

FDA is the lead agency for food and drug safety. Its web and Gopher servers contain many databases, regulations, regulatory actions, and publications. The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has a large web site that includes many FDA publications, such as its FDA Consumer magazine and the Bad Bug Book, in which selected chapters on pathogenic microorganisms have hyper-text links. For pesticides, data are available online on names and molecular formulas, with references to the Code of Federal Regulations that list food tolerances. Under seafood information and resources, FDA has the FDA Prime Connection, an electronic bulletin board with additional information on FDA’s cooperative Federal/State programs relating to shellfish safety, milk safety, and retail food protection. FDA also has the Consumer Advice on Food and Illness database, which shows the relationship between food and nutrition and a wide range of health conditions and illnesses.

For drug safety information, users can visit FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, where they can link to lists of approved drug products, the National Drug Code Directory, and the Over-the-Counter Drug Page: Information for Consumers and Industry about Non-Prescription Drugs. USDA also provides information on food safety from its web site. Topics range from the safety of school lunches to safety tips for seniors.

The Administration on Aging (AOA) web site links to Joyce Post’s Internet and E-Mail Resources on Aging, which contains a section on Health. The Health section in turn links to resources on the use of prescription drugs and their side effects. AOA’s site also links to Prescription Medicines and You, developed by AHRQ and the National Council on Patient Information and Education. The National Institute on Aging’s site posts its Age Pages, one of which is Medicines: Use Them Safely.

The Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine has the following recently completed publications on its web site: Scientific Evaluation of WIC Nutrition Risk Criteria, How Should Dietary Allowances and Recommendations Be Developed, Foods Chemicals Codex, and Food Forum. Projects under development are Food Fortification: Current Policies and Practices and Options for the Future, Risk Assessment for Pathogenic Organisms, and World and U.S. Food Supply and Dietary Recommendations.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has a drug safety component and has published studies online, such as Clinical Policy: HIV Infection, Compassionate Use of Drugs. AAFP’s spring 1996 edition of its magazine Good Health! is available online and has an article giving advice to older adults on the do’s and don’ts of taking drugs.

American Dental Association
www.ada.org

American Dental Hygienists Association Consumer Information Center
http://www.adha.org/oralhealth/index.html

CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion*
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/nccdhome.htm

The improvements in oral health in this century have been significant. Most oral diseases are now preventable by using fluorides, dental sealants, and appropriate self-care and by visiting a dentist regularly and changing behaviors such as tobacco use. Minorities and low-income people continue to experience more oral disease and problems resulting from lack of appropriate treatment. Approximately 62 percent of the population in 1992 were served by optimally fluoridated water; the objective today is for at least 75 percent of people to be served by the optimal level of fluoride.

CDC’s NCCDPHP and NIH’s National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR) are the Federal lead agencies for oral health. NCCDPHP describes online its efforts to form partnerships with health and education agencies, major voluntary associations, the private sector, and others to promote healthy behavior, including healthy dental practices. CDC has its Prevention Guidelines for Oral Cancer on the web. The National Oral Health Information Clearinghouse database can be accessed through NIDR’s web site. Other resource linkages include Internet pages on dental journals, the NIDR Gopher, NIH resources, and dental organizations.

The American Dental Hygienists Association (ADHA) Consumer Information Center page lists the 10 warning signs of periodontal disease and an online proper brushing and flossing poster. From the home page, users can choose from among the center, media file, resources, publications, career information, and kids’ stuff.

The American Association of Dental Schools (AADS) maintains electronic resources on the Internet, such as AADSoft, an online index to computer-based resources in dental education. The American Dental Association has its own web resources on all aspects of dental health for both professionals and consumers, including online public service announcements.

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
www.aacap.org

American Academy of Pediatrics
www.aap.org/

ASPO/Lamaze Association
www.lamaze-childbirth.com

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/health/nfantsmenu.htm

La Leche League International
www.prairienet.org/llli

The United States ranks 24th among other industrialized Nations in infant mortality rates. The primary objective in this priority area is to reduce the tragedy of 29,000 babies dying each year before their first birthday.

HRSA’s MCHB is the lead agency for the maternal and infant health priority area. The MCHB homepage is an electronic link for the MCH community. It links to many other sites such as the National Center of Education for MCH, the Institute for Child Health Policy, and the Maternal and Child Community Health Science Consortium. CDC also has an Infants’ and Children’s Health Page on the web.

The electronic resources of AACAP include fact sheets to help children and their families. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) designates October as Child Health Month and posts patient education materials on the web. Child care books written by AAP members, as well as a variety of videos, have short reviews over the web. AAP publishes the journal Pediatrics for pediatricians and child health care providers and tells them how to subscribe to it on the web. The ASPO/Lamaze Association lists conferences in which it participates on its web site, as well as books and audio cassettes available through the organization. The La Leche League International features 40 articles that can be read on the web; some of them have been translated into Spanish. Nine countries and 26 States now have La Leche web pages.

Alaska, like most States, has Internet information on its programs on maternal and child health. A monthly journal, Family Health Dataline, appears on the web with full-text articles "Breastfeeding in Alaska" and "Infant Mortality in Alaska: Historical Perspective." Alaska also has online the Family Health Shareline Quarterly, which has a series of full-text articles on child learning, for example.

American Heart Association
www.amhrt.org

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-heart.html

National Stroke Association
www.stroke.org

Mortality rates for heart disease and stroke have been reduced by 49 percent and 58 percent, respectively, over the past 25 years. The principal initiatives have been improved high blood pressure control and high blood cholesterol control. Nevertheless, heart disease and stroke continue to affect more Americans than any other disease.

The lead agency is the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of NIH. NHLBI has several programs that it uses to bring information to health care professionals, patients, and the public. For instance, the National High Blood Pressure Education Program offers many online abstracts and full text of documents such as the Fifth Report of the Joint National Committee on the Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure and working group reports on hypertension in diabetes and high blood pressure in pregnancy. NHLBI offers similar online access to professional and patient education materials from its programs on cholesterol, obesity, and heart attacks. NHLBI also brings online News Alerts on topics such as Bypass over Angioplasty for Patients with Diabetes and Calcium Channel Blockers.

AHRQ’s Consumer Guidelines by Condition page links to clinical practice guidelines relevant to heart disease and stroke such as Managing Unstable Angina, Living with Heart Disease: Is It Heart Failure?, Recovering After a Stroke, and Recovering from Heart Problems through Cardiac Rehabilitation. CFSAN offers information about the effects of sodium on blood pressure and using the new food label to prevent heart disease.

AHA now has 900-plus pages on the web. AHA Advisories feature Olestra, Blood Cholesterol, and Stroke. The newsletters of the AHA Scientific Councils are now appearing on the web site. The 1996 Heart and Stroke Guide has 30 percent more topics than previous versions and 4,000 links. AHA also invites searching on keywords with the Excite search engine. In addition, applications for the AHA National Research Program are now available online.

The National Stroke Association (NSA) in 1994 established the Stroke Center Network, an alliance of clinicians, researchers, and health care professionals. The quarterly Stroke Center Excellence newsletter provides up-to-date electronic information on stroke care. On the web every month, there also is Be Stroke Smart, a newsletter for stroke victims and potential victims. The Facts and Risk Factors Quiz on stroke is on the web for everyone to take.

American Medical Association
www.ama-assn.org

Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse
nysernet.org/bcic

National Association for Home Care
www.nahc.org

National Cancer Institute*
www.nci.nih.gov

New York
www.health.state.ny.us/index.htm

New York State Education and Resource Network Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse
nysernet.org/bcic/

The QuitNet
www.quitnet.com

University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center Resource
cancer.med.upenn.edu

The mortality rate for cancer was 134 deaths per 100,000 people in 1992. About one-third of these deaths were related to tobacco use. In this priority area, the risk reduction and health services objectives focus on cancer prevention and control.

NCI is the lead Federal agency in this priority area. NCI operates CancerNet, which provides information from the Physicians Data Query (PDQ) system and other cancer information via the Internet and other selected electronic sources. The information is available in English and Spanish. CancerNet also offers online selected information from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the NCI Cooperative Breast Cancer Tissue Research Database, AIDS Malignancy Bank Database, and the Cooperative Human Tissue Network. As a "hot item," NCI describes electronically a broad initiative to make information on 1,500 clinical trials listed in PDQ available on web sites.

ACS administers several large programs on cancer, including the national Breast Cancer Network. This network has online summaries of research projects, including the Women’s Health Initiative at NIH. The Reach to Recovery volunteer program of ACS provides the names of other resources, such as the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. ACS’s prevention research program provides online information on tobacco control, the relationship between diet and cancer, comprehensive school health education, and reducing the risk of skin cancer. ACS offers many publications on its online lists with titles such as the Costs of Cancer and The Medically Underserved.

The American Medical Association (AMA) provides electronic access to the Journal of the American Medical Association and to its Archives specialty journals. Users need only have a password to gain access to the table of contents, abstracts, letters to the editor, Medical News Perspectives stories, selected full-text articles, an archive of past issues, and more. The National Association for Home Care (NAHC) has NAHCNet, which is a grassroots congressional action network for home care providers. NAHC produces publications, maintained online, on topics such as Basic Statistics About Hospice Care and Home Care.

States offer information about cancer over the web. The New York State Department of Health provides information about breast cancer. The New York State Education and Resource Network Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse provides information on breast cancer detection, support groups, governmental policy, current events, and statistics. Washington posts cancer incidence data on its home page. Maryland has breast cancer information that can be downloaded and offers a directory of resources, services, and support groups for its users. The University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center Resource operates OncoLink, a resource on cancer literature, via the web. OncoLink gives its Editor’s Choice Award to the top providers of cancer-related information on the Internet. The winner for October was The QuitNet, a site from the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program, Join Together Online, with a focus on tobacco control and smoking cessation.

CDC Diabetes Home Page
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/ddt/ddthome.htm

CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion*
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/nccdhome.htm

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-gast.html

Learning Disabilities Association of America
www.ldanatl.org

National Osteoporosis Foundation
www.nof.org

Approximately 8 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes, which is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Hispanics are disproportionately affected by this disease and its complications. Chronic disabling conditions caused activity limitations for 10.6 percent of the American population in 1993. People with diabetes and chronic disabling conditions need early diagnosis and treatment and an array of services to increase their ability to manage their conditions better.

The lead agencies are NCCDPHP of CDC and NIDDK of NIH. NCCDPHP has a large diabetes page on the web. It also describes electronically its program for translating research findings into health promotion and disease prevention and treatment strategies. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse, under direction from NIDDK, maintains an electronic database of titles, abstracts, and availability of diabetes and health educational materials. Users can also search online on different databases for digestive diseases and kidney and urologic diseases. CFSAN has Information for Women About Diabetes on the web.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) has the African American Program, which has available an online diabetes risk test, background and highlights on the program, and a feature article. ADA publishes online an advocacy newsletter Diabetes Advocate. The Learning Disabilities Association of America reports on the web bulletins and provides alerts to current events, such as its testimony on trends in education.

The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) puts patient and professional educational materials on the web. Cutting Edge Report, its information briefing service, also appears. The Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center (ORBD-NRC), created by NOF with a grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Muscular Skeletal Diseases in 1994, also has a home page. ORBD-NRC has scientific bibliographies online.

CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention*
www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/nchstp.html

Food and Drug Administration
www.fda.gov/oashi/aids/hiv.html

Health Resources and Services Administration AIDS Information
www.hrsa.dhhs.gov/XAIDS.html

National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations
http://www.cossmho.org/

National Lesbian and Gay Health Association
www.serve.com/nlgha/hewa1.htm

National Minority AIDS Council
www.thebody.com/nmac/nmacpage.html

HIV infection remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the country today. Through December 31, 1995, States had reported 513,486 HIV/AIDS cases to CDC. The AIDS deaths through that time were 315,928 adults and 3,921 children.

Within CDC, the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHSTP) has the lead Federal responsibility for HIV infection. NCHSTP offers electronic versions of daily summaries, brochures, fact sheets, and reports and computer software to help Federal and State and local researchers with their data needs. The CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse has online an AIDS Daily Summary Database and a Resources and Services Database that has information on 19,000 organizations and related services. The AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service is an online collaborative effort that provides information on clinical trials. The HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Service has posted federally approved treatment guidelines. The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act of 1990 and cross-cutting AIDS information is on the web at HRSA. FDA also has web pages that are devoted to HIV and AIDS issues. These pages contain full-text or abbreviated versions of documents dealing with FDA HIV/AIDS milestones, the status of therapeutics, clinical trials and product development, evaluating medical therapeutics, barrier products, news releases, and articles and brochures.

From the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases site, users can review clinical trials being conducted for HIV and obtain telephone numbers for the persons running the trials.

The National Lesbian and Gay Health Association (NLGHA) provides online descriptions of clinics throughout the country. NLGHA’s communication activities, summarized over the Internet, include a regular national newsletter, The Health Advocate; press releases in the gay and health-related media; electronic posting on web pages, HandsNet, and gay and
lesbian and health-related listservs; and health-related public service announcements, advertisements, and media
campaigns.

Other Healthy People 2000 Consortium members involved in this priority area are the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organization (COSSMHO), the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC), and the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP). COSSMHO develops prevention initiatives in the area of AIDS education and provides online information on them. On its web site, NMAC has a listing of hotlines and service organizations and of about 25 associations, State and local health departments, and Federal agencies that provide journal articles, books, monographs, and other resources to users. AAIP has developed AIDS as one of its six focus areas listed on the web and develops clinical resources and traditional medicine for AIDS.

CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention*
www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/nchstp.html

In the United States, an estimated 12 million cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) occur each year, disproportionately affecting the young, the poor, and minorities. STDs can have serious health effects, including increasing the transmission of HIV infection. The STD priority area calls for population-based programs and education about risk and spread of diseases.

Within CDC, NCHSTP has the lead responsibility. Its publications, available over the Internet, include 1993 STD Treatment Guidelines and What We Have Learned 1990-1995, a compilation of 43 behavioral intervention project reports that can be read online or can be downloaded and read later.

The American Social Health Association (ASHA) has a home page giving users the chance to obtain information on sexual diseases. ASHA has online three surveys—herpes, human papilloma virus, and parent surveys—to help collect information. ASHA offers online a quarterly newsletter, the helper, and also produces training materials. The New York Department of Health (and most other States as well) present statistical information on STDs on their home pages.

American College of Physicians
www.acponline.org

CDC National Center for Infectious Diseases*
www.cdc.gov/ncidod/ncid.htm

CDC National Immunization Program
http://www.cdc.gov/nip/

Health Care Financing Administration
http://www.hcfa.gov/medlearn/refimmu.htm

Ohio
http://www.state.oh.us/doh/

Immunizations are controlling some familiar infectious diseases. New infectious diseases, however, continue to threaten public health. Objectives are to reduce the number of cases of vaccine preventable diseases and to increase the number of children and adults who are appropriately immunized.

CDC is the lead agency, and the National Immunization Program (NIP) and the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) share lead responsibility in this priority area. NIP operates the Childhood Immunization Program, which enters into partnerships with companies like McDonald’s and K-Mart, and makes its materials available electronically in English and Spanish. The Health Care Financing Administration and CDC sponsored Adult Immunization Awareness Week (October 20–26), with information available on the web. NIP also offers an online Q&A service for clinical practi-tioners. NCID tells electronically how to access its quarterly journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases. The whole journal is available electronically, including instructions to prospective authors on how to submit articles for consideration. In the prevention and control area, NCID invites users to search CDC’s web pages for disease-specific information.

CDC also publishes Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (in full-text and PDF formats) on epidemiological information on notifiable diseases.

AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases produces via the Internet policy statements and publications, on, for example, acellular pertussis vaccine, oral poliomyelitis, group B streptococcal infection, and treatment of Lyme borreliosis disease. The American College of Physicians (ACP), also a Consortium member, provides annotated tables of contents and selected journal articles online on such topics as the ACP Initiative on Lyme Disease, under a cooperative agreement with CDC.

Several States have information on immunization and infectious diseases available on their web sites. South Dakota, through its Health 2000 program, has the SD Immunization Information System, which is a computerized network of private and public health care vaccine providers. The Ohio Department of Health has electronic press releases on infectious disease topics.

American Academy of Family Physicians
www.aafp.org

American Academy of Pediatrics
www.aap.org

American College of Physicians
www.acponline.org

American Medical Association
www.ama-assn.org

American Nurses Association Reference Room
www.ana.org/pubs.htm

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention*
www.cdc.gov

Florida
sun6.dms.state.fl.us/hrs_hsi/

Guide to Clinical Preventive Services
odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/pubs/guidecps/

Health Resources and Services Administration*
www.hrsa.dhhs.gov

Ensuring delivery of clinical preventive services at the recommended intervals remains a challenge in the United States. In 1994, the Public Health Service started the national campaign Put Prevention Into Practice, a Federal strategy to promote the delivery of clinical preventive services by primary care providers and to reach the targets of Healthy People 2000.

HRSA has a major role as a lead agency for clinical preventive services. BPHC has BPHC ACCESS, an online database that provides expedited replies to policy questions, improves policy dissemination to the field, and provides a forum for BPHC constituents. Users may access databases that contain primary care information by State and drug pricing data. BPHC describes online its grants program, Community Health Centers and Health Care for the Homeless. BPHC tells users electronically that it is a provider of health services for the Immigration Health Services, as just one example. CDC also has lead responsibility in this area, with web pages on the CDC Prevention Guidelines Database. AHRQ has web pages containing Guidelines and Medical Outcomes, Health Care Data and Methods, and Consumer Versions of Clinical Practice Guidelines by Conditions.

The complete text of the second edition of the Guide to Clinical Preventive Services is available from ODPHP. Both PDF and ASCII files are available. The page also includes press releases and comments from some of leading authorities in public health today.

AAP’s Information and Services for Health Professionals page allows users to obtain timely information about new vaccines, policy statements and new resources. The Parent Resource Guide page lists books, magazines, databases, television series, videos, and other resources. The Reference Room page of the American Nurses Association site offers an Adobe Acrobat version of their publications catalog and links to numerous journals, both in print and online, from around the world. Users may also link to listservs and newsgroups and to other nursing-related resources, products and services.

AAFP provides online abstracts of articles in its publications, American Family Physician, Family Practice Management, and the Good Health! newsletter on the web. AAFP puts on the Internet the full statements of its clinical policies (e.g., Trial of Labor versus Elective Repeat Cesarean Section for the Women with a Preventive Cesarean Section) and its policies and legislative issues (e.g., Medical Malpractice Background Paper).

ACP, another Consortium member, has Web Watch, the internists’ guide to medical resources on the Internet. ACP also offers information on its journals, public policy position papers, continuing medical education, and computer-based clinical practice guidelines. AMA has an initiative with CDC to develop and then use electronically the Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services. GAPS outlines clinical preventive services for young people, aged 11 to 21, in all health care settings. GAPS also has links to other adolescent health sources.

Several States have web pages dealing with their efforts to follow Healthy People 2000. Oklahoma’s Healthy Oklahomans Sentinel Objectives lays out 19 priority areas and 236 health objectives, available in PDF format. Florida has the second volume of its public health goals, Building Healthy Communities, available electronically.

CDC National Center for Health Statistics*
www.cdc.gov/nchswww/nchshome.htm

CDC Scientific Data, Surveillance, and Health Statistics, and Laboratory Information
www.cdc.gov/scientific.htm

CDC Wonder
wonder.cdc.gov

Health Care Financing Administration 1996 Statistics at a Glance
www.hcfa.gov/stats/stathili.htm

NIH National Cancer Institute
www.nci.nih.gov/public/factbk95/index.htm

Office of Minority Health Resource Center
www.omhrc.gov/

Office of Population Affairs Trends in Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing
www.dhhs.gov/progorg/opa/pregtrnd.html

Surveillance and data systems provide the foundation for the Healthy People 2000 objectives process. Having baseline data and ongoing data sources is critical in measuring change, positive or negative, and in adjusting programs and strategies.

The lead agency is CDC, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). As might be expected, CDC’s data sources, health statistics, and laboratory information on the Internet are extensive. At its site, NCHS offers mortality tables, publications, database searches, journal articles, and electronic products.

AHRQ’s Data and Methods page allows users to choose from statistics on a variety of topics: Healthcare Informatics Standards, the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, HIV and AIDS Costs and Utilization, National Medical Expenditures, and Statistical Trends and Highlights. From CDC’s Scientific Data, Surveillance, and Health Statistics, and Laboratory Information page, users may link to surveillance information on birth defects, hazardous substances, and sexually transmitted diseases. At the CDC Wonder site, the most recent data are available to track each of the Healthy People 2000 objectives. HCFA provides 1996 Statistics at a Glance for both Medicare and Medicaid. Statistics on sexuality and pregnancy and childbearing can be found on the Office of Population Affairs’ Trends in Adolescent Pregnancy and Childbearing page. And information on minority populations is easily obtainable by searching the Office of Minority Health Resource Center’s database of sources and publications. Visitors to the NCI site can find data in its online factbook of statistics on cancer and on the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) page, which provides incidence data, population data for SEER registries, and U.S. population data. The Healthy People 2000 Review, which provides tracking data for the objectives, is available on the Internet through NCHS at the time of publication.

For consumers, media, and health professionals alike, the Internet has become an important place to look for facts, figures, tables, data, and more data. Some of the Internet’s many data-related benefits are immediate access, data files for downloading and analysis, and references to other resources. For example, SAMHSA provided Preliminary Estimates from the 1995 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse within 24 hours of release through several sites.

As the resources cited for the preceding 21 priority areas indicate, statistics are a key element of nearly every home page, whether public or private. As the World Wide Web’s graphical capabilities are enhanced, data will be presented in even more usable and understandable forms. New software enables web developers to put motion into numbers, such as a clock ticking to show how many deaths occur every hour because of drinking and driving. These statistics and graphics will strengthen the prevention messages of Healthy People 2000 and enhance the presentation and increase the impact of the upcoming Healthy People 2010 objectives.