The NHLBI HIN Survey 2008 Highlights

Dear NHLBI HIN Member,

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has a goal to enhance communication with its Health Information Network (HIN) members. To help reach this goal, the NHLBI conducted a survey in fall 2008.

These survey results were to help the NHLBI HIN:

• Better understand NHLBI HIN member expectations
• Improve health information services
• Improve content development and message effectiveness

Your feedback and suggestions offered ways to improve NHLBI HIN communication: by creating more information topic selections, shorter articles, more disease content, and offering choices of message formatting.

Survey highlights include the following:

• More than 90 percent of respondents described "short articles on disease topics," such as information from the online Diseases and Conditions Index (DCI), as "very" or "moderately" useful.
• More than 52 percent of respondents identified NHLBI news releases on research discoveries as "very useful."
• 87 to 95 percent of respondents were "very" or "moderately" interested in HIN e-mail topics related to heart disease, women's heart disease, and overweight/obesity.
• Respondents were "very" or "moderately" interested in the following e-mail topics: NHLBI health education materials (90 percent), research discoveries (89 percent), clinical guidelines information (88 percent), and national health observances (75 percent).
• More than 765 respondents answered the survey's open-ended questions and suggested that the NHLBI HIN offer more:
• Advance information on diagnosis/treatment/management of diseases and conditions
• Bilingual health information
• Information targeted separately to health professionals and patients/public
• Ready-to-use health materials
• Nutrition information
• Information aimed at specific demographic groups, such as older Americans, women, and children/youth
• Concise, shorter newsletters
• More than 70 percent of respondents were "very" or "moderately" interested in a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed.

Member responses helped refocus the NHLBI HIN Mission, which is to:

• Create a valued online community of health professionals, patients, and the public interested in authoritative, credible health information provided by the NHLBI.
• Continually enhance membership benefits by creating dynamic channels to effectively communicate research findings and educational resources on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders.

Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel

In addition, you will receive information on how to update your HIN membership preferences to ensure that you receive targeted and timely information.

Sincerely yours,

Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D.
Director

HIN0609