Making health information more accessible

Information technology gives us the ability to make up-to-date health information more accessible. A ‘webcast’ is essentially a seminar broadcast via the internet with the capacity to reach a much wider audience than an event held in one location.

The Jean Hailes Foundation for Women's Health held its first community webcast “Life begins at Menopause” (available for download at www.jeanhailes.org.au) in March 2008 and it was a great success with almost 1,700 viewers across Australia taking part on the night . So, we’re doing it again in 2010!

“Making your 40s fabulous: your hormones, your libido, your health”

This was chosen as our webcast topic for 2010 because it’s during this decade when women may begin to experience a range of health issues as they finish their reproductive years and enter the perimenopause phase.

This is a really important time for women to stop and think about their health and future health goals and to make taking care of themselves one of their top priorities.

How do we know what women in their 40s want to hear about?

To ensure our webcast would be relevant we surveyed Australian women in an effort to address their specific health information needs and interests. This survey was accessible on the Foundation’s website for 8 weeks, and allowed women to provide valuable feedback in terms of the health issues they most wanted information about. Women were able to submit three questions they wanted answers to in terms of their emotional health, physical and hormonal changes, libido, sleep and maintaining health for the future.

We received a fantastic response to our survey, with over 100 women providing us with feedback and questions. This feedback was then used to develop the content of our 2010 webcast, informing what topics and questions were discussed and answered by our health experts.