Addressing Health Literacy Needs with Healthfinder.Gov Content Syndication and API

Background: More Americans are going online to look for health information. As a result, organizations are using the Web to streamline the delivery of health information and connect people and services in new ways. Yet the transition to online health information can be challenging for Web users with limited health literacy skills or limited experience on the Internet.

Program background: Based on extensive research, healthfinder.gov delivers the latest, evidence-based online prevention information that is actionable, accessible, and engaging for all audiences, regardless of literacy skills. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) developed a Content Syndication Tool and an Application Programming Interface (API) to provide a unique way for organizations to syndicate healthfinder content directly on their sites. This allows healthfinder.gov to disseminate up-to-date and accurate prevention information to our partners and the public. Content syndication is a form of syndication in which Web content is made available to other sites. Rather than linking to healthfinder.gov, subscribers can pull content directly from healthfinder while keeping visitors on their site.  This free service features more than 100 prevention and wellness topics and tools of the award winning Quick Guide to Healthy Living (QGHL).  The QGHL was created and tested with hundreds of Web users with limited literacy skills, and has become a go-to destination for thousands of visitors who need easy-to-read, actionable health content. What makes the healthfinder service unique is the simple, user-friendly tool.  Other content syndication services require a level of knowledge of programming languages and Web technologies that only designers and developers have.  The healthfinder tool allows subscribers not as skilled to syndicate content in three easy steps.  By simply adding a small piece of code that retrieves the content, the user’s site will automatically receive the latest content changes from healthfinder.gov. With this tool, subscribers display content on their site through the use of an iframe.  This approach works well for those who simply want to copy and paste code into a template to displaying content on their site. To give subscribers more control over the content, we developed an API.  An API is a method to open and allow access to specific content or functionality. The healthfinder.gov API provides the latest version of the QGHL. This API gives creative and more technical developers a data set to use in new and interesting ways.  Not only can subscribers display content on their sites, they also have the opportunity to include content in mobile applications, mash-ups, or other platform they choose.

Evaluation Methods and Results: These innovations are new. No data is available.

Conclusions: These innovations expand the reach of healthfinder.gov. Organizations often do not have the resources to maintain up-to-date original health content on Web sites.  These also help to reach users that need it most, particularly those with limited literacy and Web skills.

Implications for research and/or practice: These services illustrate an innovative approach to communication, one that can help to conserve resources, provide data for new innovations, address health literacy needs, and improve health.