Nursing Informatics Newsletter: NI News Vol 3 No 1, Spring 2006

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NI News Spring 2006

News Stories

$150M investment in eHealth
to improve patient care

VICTORIA, BC, May 1 /CNW Telbec

Patient care will be improved and modernized throughout British Columbia with the investment of $150 million towards eHealth initiatives, announced Health Minister George Abbott at the opening of a national eHealth conference in Victoria. .

Canada Health Infoway, a national, independent organization which invests in electronic health record systems across Canada in partnership with provinces and territories, has conditionally agreed to allocated up to approximately $120 million to B.C. for eHealth initiatives between 2005/06 and 2008/09. The Ministry of Health is providing an additional $30 million over the same period.

Read the full article at NewsWire....

Massachusetts VNA To Expand Telemonitoring Program

The Natick Visiting Nurses Association since September has provided 31 patients with telemonitoring devices and plans soon to offer an additional 70 devices, the Boston Globe reports.

The devices, which mainly are used by patients with heart or respiratory conditions, prompt patients to check vital signs such as oxygen level, blood pressure and weight, and then ask a series of personalized questions. The information then is sent by a telephone line to a VNA computer and nurses analyze the results and identify any abnormal data. The VNA also sends a weekly report displaying trends to each patient's physician.

find out more ....

Seamless & Secure Exchange of Health
Information at HIMSS 2006

More than 3,000 attendees visited the 2006 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase. Interoperability became reality at the 2006 HIMSS Interoperability Showcase when 17 ambulatory and hospital electronic medical record (EMR) and personal health record (PHR) systems from different healthcare IT and management systems vendors shared information in a structured and secured RHIO using standards-based specifications.

With advance testing conducted at the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) Connectathon (held in January), these EHR and other IT systems, which are used today in healthcare care delivery, were part of the showcase and positioned on the exhibit floor during the 2006 Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference & Exhibition, held Feb. 12-16 in San Diego, Calif.

- read entire article at Newswise....

New study examines scope of online breast cancer support groups

Stereotypes about who will use online support groups are wrong, according to research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The researchers found that age, income and education did not predict participation, although minorities were not as active as other users.

The percentage of women with breast cancer participating in online support groups is significant and has been growing steadily over the past decade. This new research provides insights about the characteristics of women who are more likely to participate in these groups when barriers to computers and Internet access are removed.

- read entire article....

Design Corner

Write Great Web Copy!

June Kaminski Web & Media Design for Nursing

by June Kaminski

Most would agree that a good web designer has a keen eye for detail and visual appeal, great knowledge of html coding and its parameters and a sense of style, proportion and aesthetics. A final crucial skill is the ability to write interesting and flowing web copy. This final skill is perhaps the most important of all. A skill that is often uncultivated leaving clients with stilted dull web content.

If you want to offer a well-rounded service to clients, it is imperative that you learn to write well. And specifically, to be able to write in specific web-based copy style. Obviously, web copy will vary in style, readability level and length depending on the type of site you are working on. If the sole purpose of a site is to make sales, the web copy will reflect that. Persuasion, clear product descriptions, rationale for buying and so on will all be important. On the other hand, an educational site may well have essay long copy that needs to be extremely well written to keep your viewers interested and willing to click on multiple pages to read what you have to say.

So, What's the Trick?

Standard advice says - keep it less than one screen full and make it simple for the viewer with the least education. This is fine - in fact, keeping the text short and sweet does make sense when you consider the way the eye reads,.....keeping the text close to eye level causes much less strain which probably keeps your readers reading. But making it grade school simple might suit some, yet turn off many others. The key is to make your writing interesting. Pure and simple. Indeed, attend to your grammar and for heaven's sake, use your spellcheck. Nothing says "careless" quicker than a spelling error. Use an active voice and keep your tone friendly, informative and snappy. Not flippant - snappy. Keep their interest! Make your copy compelling if you want them to keep coming back.

Marc Alan Holmes offers a clever list to describe wonderful web copy.

Web copy must pull in and lock visitors.
Web copy must entertain.
Web copy must inform.
Web copy must educate.
Web copy must offer solutions.
Web copy must convince visitors to buy from you.

Attend to Your Audience

Outstanding web copy is the heart of a fantastic heavily-trafficked web site. You owe it to yourself and your clients to attend to the words and text just as much as you do the graphics and layout. A good place to start is to analyze who your target audience is. What do they want to read? What can you offer them? Combine the two using crisp flowing sentences and paragraphs and your copy will dazzle. Make your visitors feel good - this is the key to drawing them back on a regular basis. Convey a notion of caring about your viewers and take the time to write it right for them. You owe it to your viewers to treat them like intelligent discerning people. You want to entice them yet not bombard them with "marketese". Providing effective web copy is a big stride in this direction.

read entire article....

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