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Internet to Provide Health Care Information to Hispanics

Because the number of Hispanics with access to the Internet continues to increase several times faster than for any other minority group, providing health care information online is quickly becoming an effective way to reach Spanish speaking health consumers.

Gracias Doctor Solutions (GDS), a company that uses radio, television, print media and the Internet to provide information on health care issues for Spanish and Portuguese speakers, recently announced its collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to produce a Spanish language health care Web site. GDS will provide NIH with “culturally sensitive communications to better serve the Hispanic community,” according to the company.

Gracias Doctor Solutions CEO Emilio Williams adds, “NIH and GDS share a commitment to fill the health gap existing today between Hispanics and the [majority] of the U.S. population. We both understand that educating the public with culturally appropriate information is a key step to overcoming that gap.”

The high number of Latinos online seems to spell success for the NIH’s effort to reach out to Hispanics in need of health care advice and information: A recent study by Insight Research, a market-research firm specializing in the telecommunications industry, indicates that 48% of Latino households are online, compared to 45% of white households.