Lots of interesting things are going on in TMN’s clearinghouse business area right now! We just launched a mobile search feature for our clients in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Public Health and Science. This feature allows people using cell phones and other hand-held devices to locate the nearest family planning clinic by texting a ZIP code to 368674. It’s the mobile version of the searchable clinic database that we also maintain for this client (found at http://www.opaclearinghouse.org/db_search.asp). For the launch, we also created some nifty little promotional materials!

Furthermoe, less than a year ago we modified the web-based search site mentioned above to allow grantees, who are responsible for updating the information, to do so via the internet. This modification significantly streamlined what was a complex and taxing process. Now, any changes made to the data become live in the database when the changes are approved. As a result, the data in the family planning database can be kept much more up-to-date than was previously possible. Additionallu. another exciting development is that our data will also be made available through clinic locator services at other websites, such as AIDS.gov, in the near future.

For a contract with the newly established Office of Adolescent Health, we created a simple online ordering capability. As soon as it became available, our orders doubled! It’s amazing how much the internet can simplify things for people. Last week, at the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association Conference, we learned that an astonishing number of people in the U.S. now have access to online services and information—mainly due to the availability of the internet on cell phones. And on the list of what people use the internet for, searching for health information is number seven, not far behind social networking and getting directions!