For Release: March 5, 2002
Contact: DMS Communications (603) 650-1492

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New Health Improvement Program for the Upper Valley Launched

Hanover, NH -- Dartmouth Medical School and local chambers of commerce are kicking off a new program to improve health in the Upper Valley. The Spring Into Health Upper Valley Program, sponsored by Center for the Aging at Dartmouth Medical School and the Hanover and Lebanon Chambers of Commerce, will use web-based technology to improve health care; primarily through the website "howsyourhealth.com."

As part of a nationwide approach sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, the website www.howsyourhealth.com focuses the power of the internet to improve health and medical care, says site developer John Wasson, MD, professor of medicine and community and family medicine at DMS. National and local sponsors hope that community members aged 2-99 will use www.howsyourhealth.com to stay healthy and take greater responsibility. The website was developed at Dartmouth and has been tested across the country and in several languages. It is effective, free, easy-to-use, absolutely private, and contains no advertising.

Unlike other health websites that are just informational and difficult to navigate, www.howsyourhealth.com customizes information for users who are healthy or sick, old or young. Persons who are very young or sick benefit from the assistance of family or friends when using the website says Wasson. He explains that How's Your Health is derived from more than two decades of work by a network of physicians, nurses, patients and researchers affiliated with DMS to make medical care truly responsive to the needs of patients.

As members of the Upper Valley use the website, information about health needs and health care will be made public and used to better design future community programs and services. Just click on www.howsyourhealth.com and choose NH/VT.

For additional information, flyers or printed copies of web-based output from www.howsyourhealth.com, email John.H.Wasson@Dartmouth.edu, the Hanover Chamber of Commerce at han.area.chamber@valley.net or the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce at lebanonchamber@lebanonchamber.com.

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