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Feds Embrace Mobile With AIDS.gov Redesign

Government health officials tap responsive Web design for HIV/AIDS website refresh, giving
healthcare stakeholders deep access to data across smartphone, laptop, and other displays.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) has redesigned its AIDS.gov website, giving it
an entirely new look and feel that embraces smartphones and other new media.

"Our embrace of the information-centric model can be seen in the HIV/AIDS service provider locator,
which consolidates federal HIV/AIDS service locations in a single user interface that is also packaged as
an API" (application programming interface), Miguel Gomez, director of AIDS.gov, told InformationWeek
Healthcare. Gomez said that APIs make data more accessible by making them "machine-readable" in a
format that is downloadable, free, and easy to find. The site now gives developers and clinicians access
to RSS feeds, wikis, widgets, QR codes, and much more.

Gomez said that responsive Web design is a next-generation Web development method of designing
content so that it works well on both a laptop screen and a smartphone, automatically adjusting its size
to fit the screen.

"Since smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs, and video-game consoles all have different content-
display capabilities, responsive Web design ensures that a site's content is equally accessible via all
devices without adding the extra cost of designing and maintaining separate 'standard' and 'mobile'
sites," Gomez said.

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Gomez says that AIDS.gov exists as a resource for federal HIV/AIDS information in order to educate the
public regarding the disease and the risks associated with it. "We also teach our stakeholders to use new
media to extend the reach of their work. Embracing responsive design allows AIDS.gov to take key
information to communities that are accessing Web-based information in new ways, such as via mobile
phones or social networking communities."

Gomez pointed out that communities of color are disproportionately at risk for HIV and are statistically
more likely to use mobile technology to access online resources. Embracing mobile allows AIDS.gov to
go where the greatest needs exist, Gomez said.

Consumer mobile device use has also influenced HHS's new strategy. "AIDS.gov has seen a 10-fold
increase in mobile traffic within the last two years, from 2.5% of all visits to 25% of all visits to AIDS.gov,"
Gomez said. He added that the top health searches are related to sexual health topics such as chlamydia

and herpes, and HHS's own analytics show that mobile visitors are focusing on basic HIV information.
Almost 20% of all visitors view one page: "How you get HIV/AIDS."

Gomez asserted that the new changes offer several advantages for consumers. "AIDS.gov's new
responsive design allows us to continue providing information to its existing mobile audience in a way
that is engaging for users on touch-enabled devices. The site also offers simpler navigation and a more
coherent experience between desktop and mobile sites." He added, "We recognize that the complexity
of the online experience is increasing, and we need a future-friendly way of adapting as changes occur.
Techniques like responsive design ensure that HHS will be able to efficiently adapt to technology
changes in the future."

AIDS.gov was launched in 2006 on World AIDS Day. According to HHS, the website has remained in the
forefront of the use of new technologies, adding podcasts and social media in 2007 and 2008, and
releasing the HIV testing sites and care service locator--an online location-based search tool for HIV
medical services--in 2009. It launched a mobile website, optimizing additional services for mobile use, in
2010 and 2011.

Get the new, all-digital Healthcare CIO 25 issue of InformationWeek Healthcare. It's our second annual
honor roll of the health IT leaders driving healthcare's transformation. (Free registration required.)

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Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/mobile-wireless/240003114

This is what we feel:

The Orra Health team seconds the practice outlined in this article and highly recommends this trend to
all the companies/organizations that come with a rich architecture and heritage status, in order to keep
up with times, media and platforms.

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Feds embrace mobile with aids.gov redesign

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