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Wins Two 2007 eHealthcare Leadership Awards
Consumer Health Website receives Gold Award for Best Site Design and the Silver Award for Best Interactive Site
November 20, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - EyeCare America, a national non-profit organization that works to preserve eye sight by raising awareness about eye disease and providing access to no-cost medical eye care, won the eHealthcare Leadership Awards Gold Award for Best Website Design and the Silver Award for Best Interactive Site. These wins were in the category of consumer disease-focused web site.
The national non-profit recently launched the EyeCare America website as part of it’s educational mission to empower consumers with reliable educational information. As the number of Americans seeking health care information on the Internet grows, EyeCare America worked to match that trend by providing visitors to the eyecareamerica.org website with centralized health information written in language that is clear and easy for them to understand.
The site also was designed keeping in mind those who suffer from low-vision. Visitors to the website can increase the type size up to three sizes; contrast the content into both light on dark or dark on light and finally, the layout of the web pages can be changed to single -column viewing to accommodate low-vision reading aids.
“We are thrilled that our site has been recognized among the best consumer health sites on the web,” said Allison Neves, Director of Communications for EyeCare America. “Our goal is to empower consumers with the most reliable eye health information available.”
The judges of the eHealthcare award recognized eyecareamerica.org’s easy-to-use interactive functions and design. Online tools such as the vision simulator, which allows users to see how vision would be affected from common eye diseases such as cataracts and glaucoma, and the informative videos, created by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, are both an added feature on the site and provide consumers with a complete interactive experience.
“There are clear and unmistakable signs that interest in the Web and emerging technologies is hot,” says Mark Gothberg, eHealthcare Leadership Awards chairman. “The 2007 awards program attracted a huge number of entries from a wide variety of healthcare organizations.”
Winners of platinum, gold, silver, and distinction awards represented 17 industry classifications, from hospitals and health systems to pharmaceutical firms and online health companies. Awards were given in 12 different categories: Best Site Design, Best Interactive, Best Health/Healthcare Content, Best e-Business, Best Care/Disease Management, Best Rich Media, Best Employee Recruitment, Best Quality Communication, Best Newsroom, Best Overall Internet Site, Best Intranet Site, and eHealth Organizational Commitment.
Judges looked at how sites compared with others in their organization’s classification. They also reviewed sites based on a proprietary multi-point standard of Internet excellence.
The eHealthcare Leadership Awards program was developed and first presented eight years ago by eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, a leading Internet resource published by Health Care Communications, Rye, NY. The Eleventh Annual Healthcare Internet Conference was sponsored by Greystone.Net, an Atlanta-based strategy firm, and StayWell Custom Communications, an Evanston, IL-based content supplier.
About EyeCare America
Founded in 1985, EyeCare America, a public service program of the Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, is committed to the preservation of sight, accomplishing its mission through public service and education. EyeCare America's public service programs provide eye care services to the medically underserved and for those at increased risk for eye disease through its corps of 7,100 volunteer ophthalmologists dedicated to serving their communities. More than 90 percent of the care made available is provided with no out-of-pocket cost to the patients. Public service includes programs for seniors, glaucoma, diabetes, AMD and children, and is the largest program of its kind in American medicine. Since its inception, EyeCare America has helped more than 860,000 people. More information can be found at: www.eyecareamerica.org
Media Contact: Allison Neves, Director of EyeCare America Communications, 415.561.8518, aneves@aao.org
