January 13, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The UAB Health System Web site has received national recognition for providing quality health information on the Internet.

The World Wide Web Health Awards, announced by the Health Information Resource Center (HIRC), are designed to assist consumers and health professionals in deciding which health sites offer accurate, up-to-date health information. UAB's Internet site, established in 1998, brought home a gold certificate for marketing and advertising information, a silver certificate for patient education information and a certificate of merit for health promotion and disease and injury prevention information.

The UAB site was recognized along with Intelihealth, Mayo Oasis, Dr. Koop.com and other nationally recognized Web sites.

"With over 25,000 health-related Web sites, it is a distinct honor to be recognized for providing quality information on the Web," Debbie Hunter, director of marketing communications for the UAB Health System, said. "These awards prove that the UAB Health System Web site is a place consumers and physicians can visit to obtain quality information about health care that is available close to home."

HIRC, organizer of the awards program, is a national clearinghouse for consumer health information programs and materials. It is the largest awards program of its kind, but this is the first time it has recognized health information Web sites.

A panel of 34 international health information and Internet experts will judge entries based on accuracy, success inn reaching the targeted audience and overall quality. The scoring criteria used by the judges' panel to review almost 300 entries and a list of winners are posted on the healthawards.com Web site.

The Web site, www.uabmedicine.org/, provides a wealth of information about the UAB Health System, including the latest health news, health education information, new research, a physician directory that can be searched by specialty or location and a complete directory of UAB services and facilities.