Health EU : Public Health Thematic Portal

The EU Launched a new Public Health Thematic Portal. The Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General is pleased to present the Health-EU Portal (the official public health portal of the European Union) and the wide range of information and data on health-related issues and activities at both European and international level. The main objective of this thematic Portal is to provide European citizens with easy access to comprehensive information on Public Health initiatives and programmes at EU level. The portal is intended to help meet EU objectives in the Public Health field, it is an important instrument to positively influence behavior and promote the steady improvement of public health in the 25 EU Member States. Target audience: The Health-EU Portal is directed at those who want to keep informed about issues affecting their health, and at those who wish to keep up to date with policies and decisions taken at European, national and international level. The Portal is also an important source of information for health professionals, administrations, policy makers and stakeholders. It is accessible to everyone, including older people and people with disabilities, as it follows the internationally recognized rules on accessibility. The Portal also provides expert users with access to statistical databases relevant to public health. It all looks great, nicely focused around popular topics, but the first thing I notice is the tragically poor SEARCH options. If you want to give easy access, you should supply a -state of the art- searchenigine. Clearly there were no librarians involved ...-;) They should have a look at the EUROPEAN LIBRARY portal. Maybe they can work together and come up with somekind of a mash-up.