Posts Tagged ‘Women’

Womens Health
Women's
Health

Women’s Wednesday: Paging Dr. Patient

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

As society today trends towards e-patients where self-diagnosis is a mouse click away and Twitter is the new Yellow Pages for doctors, will health Web sites be the new “standard of care”? It’s safe to say that there is no shortage of dedicated health communities, particularly ones geared towards women, such as FitSugar and EmpowHER. Not to be left in the dust, iVillage, one of the largest Web sites for women, with almost 38 million page views per month, entered into the women’s health space with the launch of iVillage Health last Thursday.

iVillage Health proves itself to be a useful resource for someone seeking health information-or for self-proclaimed hypochondriacs. The site offers a Tool Kit packed full with digital tools including the very thorough Symptom Checker, Drug Lookup and Calorie Tracker. In addition to tools, the health portal also features new content from the Cleveland Clinic and health news provider Healthwise. The cherry on top is “The Care Circle,” which allows users to create customized health profiles in order to receive expert advice delivered directly to a personalized homepage.

In conjunction with the launch of the Web portal, iVillage released results of a Harris Interactive online survey which demonstrated how women rely on the Internet as a health resource.  Specifically, nearly half of women who responded (49%) said they’d go online first to research a health question, close to double the number that said they’d go to the doctor first (25%). In addition, the poll found that anonymous peer networking and sharing common experiences is what drives women online for health matters, with four out of five women saying there are reasons to feel uncomfortable when discussing health concerns or questions with friends or family members. (more…)

Posted in Disease Awareness, E-Patient, Technology, Women's Health
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Womens Health
Women's
Health

Women’s Wednesday: Free Mobile Text Service Promotes Maternal and Child Health

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Spectrum is proud to welcome the Women’s Wednesdays weekly series to the Full Spectrum Blog. Starting this week, the Spectrum’s Women’s Health Practice will provide insights and commentary relating to women’s health issues and how to reach women, whether it’s on or offline.

This week, we’re featuring a recently developed mobile tool which is providing expectant mothers with the health information they need to take care of their health and give their babies the best possible start in life.

Released last month, text4baby is a free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health. Developed by the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), text4baby sends pregnancy tips about nutrition, immunization and birth defect prevention directly to the cell phones of soon-to-be mothers.

Just text BABY to 511411 and you’ll start receiving free SMS text messages to your cell phone each week. Text4baby even times its text messages to the baby’s due date and the messages continue through the child’s first birthday. ¿Se habla español? Text4baby is also available in Spanish (text BEBE instead of BABY). (more…)

Posted in Health 2.0, New Media, Technology, Women's Health
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Infectious Disease
Infectious
Disease

Rockin’ the Red Pump for HIV/AIDS

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The Full Spectrum Blog is rockin’ the red pump in support of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, which was held on March 10. This nationwide initiative is celebrated every year during Women’s History Month to raise awareness of the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. March 10th is designated as a day to celebrate progress, but also serve as an annual reminder of the public health crisis facing our nation’s female population.

A few startling facts from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:

  • Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States[1]
  • About 1 in 4 Americans living with HIV are women[2]
  • HIV incidence rates for black women are nearly 15 times as high as that of white women, and nearly four times that of Hispanic women[3]
  • Approximately one in 30 black women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime[4]

Last week, Spectrum staff attended a few local NWGHAAD events, including the HHS Office on Women’s Health event at the National Press Club. This event brought together some of the biggest names in the nation’s HIV/AIDS arena, including the U.S. Surgeon General. Vice Admiral Regina M. Benjamin reflected on both the nationwide extent of the disease and her personal experience with HIV/AIDS. She shared the distressing story of an HIV positive woman she worked with at a health clinic and the sad account of her own brother’s abrupt death due to the virus. Looking forward, she sees increased sex education in schools paring nicely with the federal government’s recently launched anti-obesity campaign. As funding is increased for physical education classes, more health courses, hopefully including sexual health, will be taught in the public school system. (more…)

Posted in Infectious Disease
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