Website and Online Application Development Expertise for Public Health and Healthcare.

NetReach has over 10 years of public health and healthcare communications experience. Our team understands how to work with you to facilitate a process that yields the best results to meet the needs of your constituents, funders and internal staff. We've developed online/web-based projects that cover the following:

• Health Information portals
• Education-based web delivery (including CE)
• Community-building projects
• Web 2.0 (Blogs, Forums, two-way communications and content development)
• Data Gathering applications (for research and social marketing initiatives)
• Social Marketing
• Health Promotion, Education and Communications
• Section 508 accessibility
• Training
• Conference proceedings
  and more...

The following projects (described below) are examples of our work.

Drexel University School of Public Health Website — School of Public Health Site
What is Public Health — Public Outreach Information Site
Diversity Preparedness — National Resource Clearinghouse
Pathways to Public Health — Resource Clearinghouse / Public Health Career Marketing Site
Center for Nonviolence — Phase 1 Social Media Site
Witnesses to Hunger — Public Policy Advocacy Site
Learning Through Listening — Teacher information, resources and tools
EARLI — Cohort study support site

Brief Public Health Web Project Descriptions

Drexel University School of Public Health Website- This site is an exemplary example of NetReach's work in the realm of information dissemination and marketing. Drexel University's School of Public Health is a growing school that required advances in it's navigation, site structure and enhancements to the story of the school. Recent improvements enhance the delivery of information on work in the field and new research. The school also houses several centers and projects. NetReach developed complementary sites to complement the school's identity, yet show a depth of content. The following are centers/projects at the school that use the toolset which is used on the school's site--and is administered by staff of each entity:

• Center for Health Equality
• GROW Project
• Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication

  View Drexel University School of Public Health Case Study

What is Public Health?- This site was developed for the Association of Schools of Public Health to explain what public health encompasses, it's impact and career opportunities in public health. A visual explanation was developed to convey this information in an exciting and engaging manner.

Diversity Preparedness- A review of academic literature showed that minorities, when compared with others, saw less risk from disasters, were more skeptical of warnings, were less likely to evacuate, were less likely to receive disaster education, and relied more on family and TV for information.

Phase I of the project concentrated on delivery of a robust custom clearinghouse application — an online centralized database of resources — that is fully content managed and maintained by center's staff. NetReach’s new advanced application building tools allowed for rapid development and cost efficiencies during development to launch a resource-rich information portal. Result The robust website includes the following:

• Keyword and Advanced Search and filtering capabilities
• Section 508 compliance for access to users with visual impairments and disabilities
• The ability to have resource submissions from outside parties on the website for review
• E-newsletter integration—seamless sign-up to client’s e-newsletter 3rd party application
• Ability to easily relate data records to multiple categories and descriptors

  View Diversity Preparedness Case Study | Press Release

Pathways to Public Health- "Pathways to Public Health" was developed for the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) as a way for youth to learn more about public health education and public health careers. It includes a clearinghouse of resources, the ability for site visitors to submit resources for inclusion into the resource section of the site (after review and approval by ASPH staff), student profiles and other helpful information for students, parents, teachers, and counselors.

Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice- In November of 2007, the Thomas Scattergood Foundation awarded Drexel University’s School of Public Health with a five-year grant to establish the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice. The goal of the site is to support the goals of the center: to stimulate and foster dialogue among individuals, organizations and institutions to deepen our understanding of nonviolence and social justice and the prevention of all forms of violence.

Witnesses to Hunger — Mothers Taking Action to Change Health Policy
Witnesses to Hunger is a project involving 40 women who have very young children in Philadelphia. These are women who have been experiencing hunger, homelessness and community violence. They were given digital cameras to use as their voice to show people the everyday experience of living in poverty, and to inform policy makers about how policies affect them and their children.

40 women speaking for themselves & their children
40 women taking their own pictures & videos
40 women say it in their own words
40 women: experts on poverty, hunger, housing, employment, childcare

Some of the many issues that these mothers confront in their photographs are:

• housing
• food
• work/education
• childcare
• neighborhood violence and drugs
• depression & trauma
• access to health care
• racism
• motherhood and childhood

A stunning photo gallery database of over 2,000 editorially selected, impactful photos will be displayed and  easily accessible through cross-referenced Browse and Advanced Search functions.  Each image will be tagged with the mother's name, photo title, the issue(s) that the photograph concerns, related policies and programs that address those issues, if applicable, a brief description and quote from the mother. Selected photos will include a 4-5 minute mp3 audio file of an interview with the mother. Witnesses staff are given web-based editorial tools to upload photos, pdfs, audio and video to build the gallery. 

Learning Through Listening- Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D), a national non-profit founded in the 1940s, currently serves nearly 180,000 kindergarten through graduate level+ students with its one-of-a-kind collection of digitally recorded CD-based textbooks and novels.

NetReach worked with RFB&D staff to develop an assessment to determine the goals of the project. The findings, along with data that RFB&D had from the target audience, yielded a blueprint to develop the site that both functioned as a resource for teachers and also an easy-to-use tool for staff to implement and publish with.

The Section 508 compliant site called Learning Through Listening, includes a rich database of classroom materials that are searchable. A custom curriculum builder allows for:

• consistent formatting of all lesson plans; teachers can also submit plans for review
• downloadable related materials (blackline masters, word and pdf documents, and audio assets)
• printer-friendly pages & email-a-friend capability
• commenting on lesson plans
• display of NEW items that can be timed to stay new based on RFB&D requirements
• searches/display by subject and grade
• subscription to NEW lesson plans via RSS feed
• lesson plans and their related downloadables can be grouped by subject and grade level

Registration for a free membership allows for access to additional resources on the site. An API was furnished that enables cmScribe’s user profile database to check the RFB&D CRM system in real time for an existing school membership. This allows current users of RFB&D products to be recognized and eliminate double membership hassles. The site is highly interactive and allows the client to make their products available as well.

View RFB&D Case Study | Press Release

EARLI - Pregnant mothers from families at risk for autism may help find genetic and environmental factors that cause autism. This multi-year cohort study, funded by NIH features 4 geographically diverse research and related clinical centers: Drexel University School of Public Health, PA; Johns Hopkins, MD; UC Davis, CA and Kaiser Permanente, CA. The website will support introduction of the study, dissemination of information and materials to participants, their families and health care professionals as well as acting as an intranet portal for staff centers to collaborate and exchange information.