The Irish College of General Practitioners has launched healthhub.ie, a €2m (£1.35m) health information website aimed at both healthcare professionals and the general public, which they have dubbed the "Harley Street of cyberspace."
Healthhub.ie was five years in development and was officially launched this week by Tanaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Mary Harney. The site features input from over 20 different care organisations within Ireland, including the Irish Patients’ Association and Irish Association of Social Workers, and was developed by web design firm Odyssey.
Ms Harney, speaking at the launch in the Guinness Enterprise Centre, said: "I believe healthhub.ie is an excellent resource for health professionals themselves and for the professional bodies to which they belong.
"It will provide them with a means of speedy, efficient communication which will enable them to provide a better service to their patients and their members. It also has many benefits for the general public, who are increasingly using the internet to obtain important health-related information."
For healthcare professionals, the site features a restricted discussion forum for participating care organisation, an events calendar and clinical resources and links. For the public, patient information leaflets about a wide variety of conditions can be downloaded, and there is a searchable directory of services.
Michael Norris, chair of healthhub.ie, commented: "You could call this the Harley Street of Cyberspace. Health professionals and the general public can use healthhub.ie as a single point of access to a broad range of professional bodies and health professionals’ organisations, just as you would find a specialist in Harley Street."
The director of the site, Billy Brennan, added: "The advantages of using healthhub.ie are such that not one organisation to whom we have spoken in detail about its uses have failed to join us. It is unique, there is simply nothing like this anywhere else in the world".
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