The United States National Library of Medicine recently announced that they would be launching Mobile MedlinePlus, an extension of their web-based health information system MedlinePlus. The service is being launched in an effort to better ‘meet the health information needs of an on-the-go public’.
MedlinePlus provides a comprehensive level of consumer health information to over 10 million visitors each month in a variety of ways. The service includes summaries for over 800 diseases, wellness topics, latest health news, an illustrated medical encyclopaedia and information on prescriptions and over the counter medicines. Mobile MedlinePlus will supplement this by offering a subset of the website’s information in both English and Spanish. It is intended that the mobile service will be utilised when buying medicine at the chemist or checking health information when travelling abroad.
The organisation’s press release notes that mobile web access is large and growing with certain experts expecting the web to be accessed by more mobile devices than desktop or laptop computers in the next five years. As such the creation of a mobile service is seen as a highly useful means of making consumer health information available to people.
“We know that a huge number of people are seeking good health information on the Web,” noted NLM Director Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg. “What better way to reach out to them than by offering this new mobile service, which delivers trustworthy, consumer-friendly information instantly, anywhere?”