NPHP Press Releases
November 7, 2004
New Interactive Program will Communicate Information on Flu and other Health Topics
National Health Museum Chairman Louis W. Sullivan, MD, today announced the launch of a new communications initiative designed to quickly respond to public interest in influenza and other pressing public health issues. The Health Response Center, a pilot project of the Museum-led National Public Health Partnership, will utilize museums and science centers to reach Americans with current and reliable information to aid personal, family and community health.
“Museums and science centers provide outstanding educational venues in which to address public health topics” said Dr. Sullivan. “These institutions draw more than 800 million visitors each year and are viewed by the public as highly trustworthy. The Health Response Center will be a fast-moving, highly targeted communications tool these institutions will use to address their visitors’ interests in emerging and re-emerging public health issues.”
The Health Response Center pilot program will provide up-to-date information about the flu to museum and science center visitors using two novel outreach tools— an interactive educational touchscreen kiosk and a web-based resource bank for museum professionals.
The touchscreen kiosk will be pilot tested at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science in Houston, Texas, and at HealthSpace Cleveland in Cleveland, Ohio. Visitors will use the interactive touchscreen to explore flu-related issues, such as the current flu vaccine shortage, personal risk for serious flu complications, and protective measures that can be undertaken with and without the vaccine. The technology designed for the program has the capacity to respond to breaking news by updating information at a moments notice.
This touchscreen kiosk will be complemented by a web-based resource bank for museum professionals that will be piloted in Houston and Cleveland, as well as at several other institutions, including the California Science Center, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and the Maryland Science Center. The resource bank will include expanded information and specially customized materials, program recommendations, and local information for developing programs for museum and science center visitors.
The US Department of Health and Human Services is providing funding support for the Health Response Center pilot, which is also being developed with in-kind content support from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The Health Response Center is the initial educational program of the National Public Health Partnership (NPHP), an NHM-led nationwide network of leading public health organizations, museums and science centers that has joined together to pursue new opportunities for informal education about public health topics. Funded with initial support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the NPHP seeks to increase public health programming at museums and science centers throughout the US.
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