Public health information via the World Wide Web

The convenient and inexpensive access to multiple health information data bases, as well as access to leading health authorities at three major Ohio health science centers, provide a unique opportunity to increase the overall health status of society. This access is available world-wide, everyday, to anyone who can log on to a computer terminal at home, school, work, or the public library. The challenges for all internet-based health information systems in the future will be to keep the information as current as possible, and to measure its effectiveness continuously as another motivator for patients who are seeking healthier lifestyles and looking for more information before making critical health care choices. It is important for optometry to participate in such endeavors in order to promote our role as primary eye care providers.