Health Department Launches World Wide Web Site
Albany, April 17 -- State Health Commissioner Barbara A. DeBuono,M.D., today announced the launch of the Department's "home page," joining a growing number of state agencies making public information accessible on the World Wide Web.
The Health Department's home page can be reached at http://www.health.state.ny.us, and can also be accessed from New York State's official Web "residence"(http://www.state.ny.us), which was launched by Governor George E. Pataki in December 1995.
In March 1994, the Department began providing Internet users the electronic equivalent of nearly 40,000 pages of health-related information online through a "gopher" server (gopher.health.state.ny.us). More than 14,500 connections are made weekly to the "gopher" site. In addition, more than 1,000 other Internet sites point users to the Health Department's gopher site, including the federal Centers for Disease Control, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, the National Network of Libraries and Medicine, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
"Our fact sheets on more than 60 communicable diseases are most often browsed by Internet users," Commissioner DeBuono said. "The anonymity factor in accessing an electronic library around the clock is evidently very appealing."
The Web site will allow users to print out applications requesting copies of birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates. Right now, the Public Health Priorities Planning Committee can be reached at hlthplan@health.state.ny.us, with registration forms available for six workshops to be held around the State in May. For those who cannot attend, a "public comment" form can be "returned" electronically, saving paper, postage stamps and time.
Other information on the Department's home page includes: Adoption Information Registry; press releases; statistics on communicable diseases such as rabies and sexually transmitted diseases; vital statistics; data on cancer, heart disease, stroke, environmental health, and HIV; hospital discharge statistics; and location by county of certified home health agencies, diagnostic and treatment centers, hospices, hospitals, long-term home health care programs, mammography facilities and nursing homes.
4/17/96-50 OPA
Contact: Claudia Hutton, Director, Public Affairs (518) 474-7354New York State Department of Health Posted 5/10/96
