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The pressing needs of chronic disease suffers have provided a compelling and often very passionate focus for the eHealth community. Across the web, gaming and device technologies there have been some amazing products and services developed to address the challenges brought on by prolonged illness.Better Health Channel
Victorian health website is Australia’s number 1
One of Australia’s most trusted health websites has scooped a major national popularity award proving that quality health information still matters.
The Better Health Channel, a site that has been run by the Victorian Government for the past ten years, has outclassed several major commercial health websites to win the number 1 position as the most visited health and medical information website in Australia.
The 2008 Hitwise Online Performance Awards, announced in Sydney in last month, recognise excellence in online performance through public popularity by measuring the number of visits to individual websites in each industry category.
"This award shows that good quality health information is very much in demand," Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews said.
"People are increasingly turning to the Internet to supplement advice from their doctor or health professional.
"Whether they’ve gone online to get additional information, or make sense of something they’ve been told, people are looking for information they can trust, from a site that isn’t trying to sell them anything," Mr Andrews said.
The online health market has changed enormously since the Better Health Channel was first launched in 1999.
"The number of health and medical information websites has quadrupled over the past four years as our voracious appetite for health related information expands," he said.
"In 2004, there were 610 health websites, by 2008, there were 2424. Despite this, there were well over 10 million visits to the Better Health Channel last year."
Gerardine O’Sullivan, Web Health Communications Manager at the Department of Human Services which manages the Better Health Channel was excited to hear of the award.
"We’re thrilled. This award is testament to people’s ability to suss out a good quality website when they see it - they want information that’s reliable, accurate and independent," she said.
Contact us
Health Informatics Society of Australia Ltd (HISA) ABN 80 097 598 742
Phone: 613-9388-0555
Fax: 613-9388-2086
Address: 413 Lygon Street
Brunswick East Victoria, Australia, 3057
Website: www.hisa.org.au
Email: conference@hisa.org.au
