From the Federal Register Announcement (PDF):

President Obama issued a directive to all Federal agencies calling for greater transparency, public participation, and collaboration. In response to this Directive, and in keeping with the work that has already been done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to encourage public input and provide science-based health resources and science information to the public, NIH posts this Request for Information (RFI) to offer a new public input opportunity. [Our Emphasis] The RFI will provide insight and better understanding of the health information needs and information-seeking behaviors of NIH health consumer audiences. Information gathered will assist the agency in developing and disseminating health, medical, and scientific information to a broader variety of audiences. The agency anticipates using new outreach strategies and tools, from community level outlets to Internet-based social media. Members of the public as well as organizations are invited and encouraged to participate in this public input opportunity.

[Snip]

The Request for Information (RFI) serves as a vehicle to obtain public comments on how NIH can best address communication challenges and requirements for the 21st century in the face of increased demands and shrinking resources. The purpose of the RFI is to obtain information aimed at helping the NIH strengthen short- and long-term communications strategies while identifying cost-effective, meritorious, innovative, and legally sanctioned methods and outlets for disseminating health information to the public. Specifically, the RFI seeks information on the following:
+ The current state and range of health information-seeking behaviors and trends;
+ The range of health information of interest to the public;
+ How the public accesses and uses health information; and
+ The barriers that might impede NIH’s ability to communicate with health consumers.

Responses will be accepted through December 30, 2009. Please limit responses to the maximum number of words indicated for each response.

The complete RFI with a complete set of directions will be posted here in the next few days.

Source: Federal Register / National Institutes of Health
Hat Tip: M.Z.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 and is filed under Government Documents and Political Information, Information Literacy, Information Policy, Information Seeking, Search News, Technology and Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.