As I transition the site over to Milhealth's Directory of Military Health Information Resources, this text was previously on the front page:

WELCOME TO THE MILITARY HEALTH MATTERS RESOURCE SITE

"The health and well-being of our military, past, present and future should matter to us all!" 

This is my original site, which is no longer being updated since I am working on the Directory...which I hope you will check out!!

URL: http://milhealthscat.militaryhealthmatters.org/Home.html/

I began this journey many years ago, informally after my son enlisted right out of high school in July 2001.Once I found my self 'unemployed' (layed off)... I deciced to take something I feel very passionate about... and began the ground work for a 'formal' site with current military health information.

I have always been concerned about the ability of both regular folk and professionally trained people to find appropriate medical & health information, organized, easy to access, and easy to understand, all in one place. 

The majority of people (all ages) obtain their health information on-line, most of these are people with with chronic or terminal illnesses. Yet, the majority (according to surveys) express disatisfaction with the information they find but are not really sure where they should be looking. 

I have personally seen this throughout my 17+ years working in medical/health research, health information analysis and health information literacy training. I've provided clinical professionals, residents and fellowships as well as consumers this type of training as well. 'Health information literacy' skills pertain to 'where' you should be looking for your health information (appropriate to your education and comprehension of medical information and 'how' (best practices) in seeking your information.

There is an abudance of information out there...so you need the knowledge and skills to seek information with an abundance of caution! From this... Military Health Matters Resource Center was created with these objectives:

RELEVANT- does this information really apply to my circumstances'credible' (anybody can put up a site selling the 'magic' cure for any disease);

ACCURATE - is the information on the site supported by scientific facts, resources? Who is responsible for the site's content? Are they being compensated (and/or have a 'conflict of interest'?

TIMELY - what are the copyright dates on the site's resource lists? When was the site or specific pages updated?

The Health and well-being of our military... past (veterans), present and future is so important!"

Over the past year (when I began this)... through input, feedback, and interactions with many really great people... I decided, rather than provide yet another site with more information ... what was really needed... a site with information, carefully researched, collected and organized in an easy to access and use format (such as a directory).      

The next step was to figure out the most economic but workable format/platform. I have a lot of experience using SharePoint, CMSs, Wikis, basic web design, ... but decided on Wordpress (blogging platform) with a few good plugins. I was able to find some great info and advice on-line, so if you need assistance with Wordpress or directory design... please contact me .... 

MHMRC was born out of my concern about the lasting psychological impact of urban combat fighting against a radical enemy who has no regard for life and what the future holds for the hundreds of young men and women who have been through multiple deployments under very difficult conditions.

MHD, Milhealth's Directory different in appearance and purpose but not mission.