Launched in 1993, Access Excellence is a national educational program that provides high school health and biology teachers access to their colleagues, scientists, and critical sources of new scientific information via the World Wide Web.

In 1999, Access Excellence was donated to the National Health Museum by Genentech, a leading biotechnology company. Access Excellence currently forms the core of the educational component of the National Health Museum Website and will be expanded substantially to better serve the needs of K-12 health educators.

Originally focused solely to serve biology educators, Access Excellence was developed with close attention to the needs of this important constituency. When biology teachers were asked, as a part of the development process, what would make the greatest impact on biology education, the teachers said they needed a way to "break the isolation" from other teachers and to be able to share teaching ideas, strategies and activities with their colleagues. They said this rare interaction helped them to more effectively interest and inspire their students about the life sciences.

Guided in the first phase by an original panel of education and scientific advisors, Access Excellence enhanced biology teaching by providing a computer network forum on which teachers can share their innovative teaching ideas and activities, accessing information, expert assistance, and the advice and experience of other teachers to create new ideas and best practices. Each year for the first three years of the program, the National Science Teachers Association chose one hundred Fellows to assist with the design and development of the program and the online forum, and to conduct outreach to other teachers. In 1997, the Fellows program was discontinued so that resources could be focused on the electronic forum on the World Wide Web. The core group of 310 Fellows continue as active participants and mentors, and new individuals and teaching communities are invited to participate via the Web.

As a core program of the National Health Museum, Access Excellence will now be expanded to serve even broader teaching communities. For more details about plans for the expanded NHM virtual presence, visit NHM Online: Version 2.0.

The Museum's efforts to enhance education through the Access Excellence program have been extremely successful, resulting in recognition by national educational organizations and the media as a model program of private sector support. Access Excellence has also been the subject of a thorough evaluation by the Center for Children and Technology. With the ongoing support of The Museum, as well as other interested donors, Access Excellence will continue to evolve and grow, while maintaining its well-earned reputation as a truly important contribution to health and biology science education.