North Country Health Consortium (NCHC), a rural health care system in an underserved area of Northern New Hampshire with 11 member organizations, proposes a project entitled North Country Care-Net: Easy Links to Health Information. This project will expand the reach of the North Country Health Information Network (NCHIN), the secure network infrastructure used for patient care coordination and clinical information, Internet access, and videoconferencing, giving safety-net health and human service providers and their clients with limited literacy skills access to health information online. Participating sites include two federally qualified community health centers, a care coordination program office, two Adult Tutorial Programs, a community action program, and a family resource center. This proposal responds to needs identified by health providers and clients in the service area, where the population is particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of low literacy. The broad objective of this project, which addresses the National Library of Medicine's Long Range Plan 2000-2005 Goal 2: Promote Use of Health Information by Health Professionals and the Public, is to raise awareness among health care providers and their clients about using technology to find appropriately written materials online, and to extend existing services of the North Country Health Information Network (NCHIN) to a larger audience. North Country Care-Net: Easy Links to Health Information, specifically aims to meet its broad objectives by: 1) improving Internet access to health professionals and their patients with limited literacy skills by expanding the reach of the North Country information Network (NCHIN); 2) designing/creating an easy-to-read website to increase/improve online access to understandable health information for a low literacy population; 3) providing equipment to allow for open access to the Internet at participating sites that will feature website for low literacy population; 4) provide Outreach Librarian services at participating sites to health professionals, clients, and site coordinators (e.g., training on finding/using health information online, client referral to resources available at area health sciences libraries, technical assistance, promoting Internet services available through North Country Health Consortium (NCHC).
