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Local source for kids' health information reaches 20th anniversary

A local organization delivering information on children’s health issues celebrates its 20th anniversary this fall.

Nemours Center for Children’s Health Media launched in 1992 with the goal of producing family friendly books and video about kids’ health.

Three years later in 1995, its reach expanded with the addition of the website KidsHealth.org. The research firm comScore rates the website the number one most visited site for information on children’s health with about 800,000 visits on an average weekday.

Watch more of WDDE's interview with Nemours’ KidsHealth Founder and Chief Executive Dr. Neil Izenberg.

Watch more of WDDE's interview with Nemours’ KidsHealth Founder and Chief Executive Dr. Neil Izenberg.

[flashvideo file=http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/kids-health.flv image="none" /]

Nemours’ KidsHealth Founder and Chief Executive Dr. Neil Izenberg says KidsHealth seeks to empower parents and kids by demystifying health issues. It offers separate sections for parents, kids and teens. In each section, the goal is provide accurate information, reviewed by clinicians, in an approachable way that sparks conversation.

"What we say is we provide knowledge, perspective, advice and comfort. And the comfort part is just as important [as the rest] because if you are very anxious about it or fearful or don't want to learn about because you don't want to know, that's not good for you," said Izenberg. "This makes it feel better to learn."

And Izenberg credits that unique voice for the site’s sustained success.

“So many health websites are just about what’s the disease, how’s it diagnosed, what’s the therapy. And ours wraps into how it affects you, what you can do about it, how you can talk to our friends about it – as well as all the medical issues,” said Izenberg.

But Izenberg adds that providing information on health issues to such a large audience also comes with a responsibility.

“We’re very attentive to not telling people what they should do. We describe things generally. We say ‘in many cases this is what happens.’ or here’s an alternative or when to see your doctor," Izenberg said. "We don’t play the role of your personal doctor on the web. Any website that does that is wrong.”

Izenberg says the Nemours Center for Children’s Health Media and KidsHealth remains active in areas beyond KidsHealth.org. There is a website for schools, KidsHealth in the Classroom, that provides resources for teachers, coaches and school nurses. The Center also licenses its web and video content to over 60 hospitals around the country.

It's next area of expansion is producing interactive family-friendly content attached to electronic medical records as well discharge and after-care instructions.

"What we are doing is creating content in different media, on different platforms, that gets you information," said Izenberg. "It doesn't matter where you see it or what kind of device you have it's there for you."