The university and health system have announced the launch of HopkinsHealth, which will license Hopkins-branded consumer health information to the online community.

HopkinsHealth, drawing on one of the nation's most recognized and respected names in health care, begins with a content database containing more than 100,000 documents--the equivalent of a 125-volume health encyclopedia--of consumer health information developed with hundreds of faculty members from the university's schools of medicine, nursing and public health. Much of it was created during the three-plus years that Hopkins was content partner on InteliHealth, an arrangement that formally ended on Aug. 1. The HopkinsHealth medical/editorial team will continually develop new content to complement its more than 30 existing topic areas.

"HopkinsHealth is a wonderful opportunity for this institution to continue to create the 'gold standard' for consumer health information that, we hope, will allow people to lead healthier lives," said Edward D. Miller, CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

"The great strength of this endeavor is that we bring to it the collective excellence and expertise of clinicians and scientists, working at the nation's leading hospital and schools of public health, medicine and nursing," said Alfred Sommer, dean of the School of Public Health. "That health care authority channeled through multiple new technology channels will surely have a positive impact on people's lives."

The HopkinsHealth business strategy, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine's chief financial officer, Rich Grossi, is to support forward-thinking start-up and established online partners rather than create another consumer health Web site.

"Hopkins can best accomplish one of its most fundamental missions--to educate and inform--by developing and maintaining the most substantive and authoritative health content we can and then by supporting smart, aggressive companies that have a clear and sustainable vision for how best to reach and really help consumers and patients and their health care providers as well," Grossi said.

HopkinsHealth enters the marketplace with letters of agreements with four initial partners, each of them targeted to a different segment of the online health care market. More information about them will be forthcoming when contracts are finalized.

HopkinsHealth has its own Web presence, at: http://www.HopkinsHealth.com.

Its primary function is to serve as a starting point for potential partners to get information about the content licensing service. What the public can find there is a gateway to Johns Hopkins University Web sites, the latest health-related research news and an opportunity to purchase a wide range of Hopkins' consumer health publications and services such as the Personal Librarian, a customized health research report.

HopkinsHealth is managed by the School of Medicine's Office of Consumer Health Information, which oversees the commercial consumer health content program for the university's health divisions and coordinates the editorial participation of their faculties.

"I have been impressed by the dedication of so many faculty members across the health divisions to get right in the trenches of the editorial process to ensure that the consumer information we develop is, above all else, accurate and timely and just the right tone for the audience," said Sue K. Donaldson, dean of the School of Nursing.