Hypermedia for Health Promotion in the Worksite

We will test the application of hypermedia for promoting health and safety in the worksite. Specifically, we plan to develop a hypermedia based program for presenting to workers site- specific information on working conditions. The program would be a health promotion and risk management tool as well as an information management tool. The use of hypermedia in this application offers a number of advantages over competing technologies. The hardware and software required to support hypermedia are inexpensive and readily available. Minimal hardware and software requirements also make hypermedia easier to operate and more reliable than expert systems or interactive multimedia. Finally, the very nature of hypermedia is interactive and intuitive. Hypermedia has the potential to make health-related information more accessible to employees who are at risk. Research has discovered a great deal about the causes of cancer and ways to prevent it, but many who could benefit from this research either do not know about it, or are not motivated to comply with directives for prevention. Hypermedia could be an important tool in overcoming these barriers. The concept represents a systematic application of existing knowledge toward the production of a new method for presenting health promotion and cancer prevention information.