Welcome to University of Iowa Health Care Today. Iowa Go Local is a Web site that offers free, high quality health information. The Iowa Go Local site is produced by the University of Iowa Hardin Library for the Health Sciences in partnership with the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Patients’ Library, with funding from the National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Chris Childs joins me now by phone to tell us more about the Iowa Go Local site and how we can take advantage of it. Chris is a librarian at The University of Iowa Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Chris,

Briefly explain to us, what is the mission of the Iowa Go Local Web site?

The mission basically is to connect Iowans to health care providers, facilities, and services that are located in their county. Basically Iowa Go Local covers all 99 counties across the state of Iowa.

Who is the Web site intended for?

The Web site is really intended for anyone who is interested in using it. This is a free service and this is sponsored through the National Library of Medicine. The only requirement is that the individual or individuals have access to the internet.

How do people find the site?

Basically all they have to do is go into MedlinePlus®, and this is a free consumer health Web site that, again, is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. The url is www.medlineplus.gov or they can just go into any search engine such as Google or Yahoo and just type in medlineplus.

Who maintains the information on the site?

We have a graduate student, her name is Elizabeth Nummela, and she basically started out over a year ago and she started entering all the records that we now have into Iowa Go Local. We now have close to five thousand. She’s the one who actually maintains all the information on the Web site.

The site offers several services – could you explain how the following links on the site might be used:

Services by location

Actually, this is probably the most popular option of searching that we have. Basically, what it does is when you click on the ‘Go Local’ link, going to be taken to an interactive map of the United States. Click on Iowa, and then you can either click on the particular county that you’re interested in on the map; or actually, below the map there’s a list of all the counties that are in Iowa. And also below those counties is a list of some of the more popular cities and metropolitan areas across the state, and you can certainly click on those as well. But I think the most popular is probably clicking on the county on the interactive map. Once you’ve done that, then you’ll be taken to a list and on the top is basically an alphabetical list that you can go ahead and click on the corresponding letter. For example, if you’re interested in finding hospitals in Johnson County, you would click on Johnson County on the interactive map; click on the letter H; and it would take you to the services that begin with H and then you would scroll down and find hospitals. And you’ll find a link and it will say hospitals and also in parentheses, it will tell you how many hospitals are available in Johnson County. You’ll click on that link and then what you’ll see is you’ll see a brief record, and basically it will give you the name of the hospital; and also—if it’s available—a link to their Web site; also their contact information; and then there should be a link for maps and directions; and then there’s a brief description of the hospital itself. What it will start out with on this page is you’ll get a list of all the resources available in Johnson County, and then if there are resources that also are statewide that are not located within Johnson County, this will be after the resources that located specifically in Johnson County.

Services by providers, facilities, and services

That’s another option that we have and it kind of works the same way, except here you’ll actually start out with a provider, facility, or service. So let’s say you just moved into Johnson County and you’re interested in what kinds of pharmacies are available and where they’re located. So you would click on this link, and what you would do first is basically you would go ahead and you would select ‘pharmacies,’ and again you can either choose the letter P from the list on the top of the page, or you can just scroll down and select the link for Pharmacy. And once you do that, then it will take you to the interactive map, and then you can click on Johnson County. And you also have the option of—if you want to choose resources that are within a 10-mile radius of Johnson County, or you can increase that radius up to 200 miles, it’s certainly up to you. And again you’ll get the same listing with the brief records of pharmacies in Johnson County.

Services for diseases and health issues

Exactly, and again, it kind of works the same way as if you’re looking for providers, facilities, or services. Basically what you’ll do is you’ll go ahead and click on the link, and let’s say for example you’re interested in finding information on diabetes in Johnson County. Same thing—it takes you to the interactive map and you’ll click on Johnson County. What this does, though, is it actually gives you a list of all the providers, facilities and services in Johnson County that deal with diabetes. So you’re not just going to, for example, just get a list of all the hospitals or all the pharmacies like in the first two examples. This will give you a comprehensive list of all the services that are entered into Iowa Go Local that do deal with diabetes. What will happen is, for example, each link to a different service—you can click on that link and that will immediately take you down the list and it will give you that little record for the contact information.

How often will the Iowa Go Local site have medical information be updated?

Actually, it’s constantly being updated. Elizabeth Nummela is now working on all the records that we currently have and she’s constantly updating them and evaluating them; making sure that they’re current, making sure that the addresses are still the same as when she first entered them in, and if not, she’s going to go ahead and change them and make the correction and then put it back in the system. So all records are constantly being updated as we speak.

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