Improving Health Literacy through Digital Multimedia

Audio-visuals have been proven more effective than printed materials in health communication. With the rapidly growth of the Internet, a dramatically increasing number of digital multimedia is readily available on the web and covers various topics. The availability of high speed Internet shortens the distance between digital multimedia and potential audiences. To assist health professionals to access these valuable resources in health communication, JJ's DIAMOND (Digital Instruction And Multimedia Over the Net Database) has been established for the health education-related digital multimedia. JJ's DIAMOND is a web-based database collects the URLs of the health-related digital multimedia and supplies health educators a convenient and friendly interface in finding health communication media. A wide variety of online multimedia, including digital audios, digital videos, flash animations, PowerPoint presentations, and e-papers have been searched and entered into JJ's DIAMOND. Users may search by author, title, publisher, subject category, or type of material. Detailed description and critical media evaluation are provided for individual materials through service learning. JJ's DIAMOND provides a unique online resource extending learning resources nationally and internationally with multiple language interfaces. JJ's DIAMOND can also be used in modeling health education media for various health behavior interventions among people in different age, ethnical/educational levels, and geographic locations.