The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will provide a $275,000 grant to the City University of New York to support the design, construction and demonstration of an electronic Consumer Health Information Network.

Marsha Ra, CUNY Director of Libraries, and Principal Investigator for the grant, says, "The project will establish user-friendly microcomputer access at libraries, colleges and hospitals. The new system will allow users to navigate among a wide range of databases, including the Breast Cancer Information Clearinghouse, AIDS Treatment News, Cancernet, Oncolink, Lymenet and the New York State Department of Health's gopher service. The system will also provide information from local voluntary health organizations, including Planned Parenthood, the New York office of the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Gay Men's Health Crisis, and the March of Dimes. Several services will be available in Spanish as well."

The network will build on the existing infrastructure available at CUNY, and in order to ensure capacity for growth and interconnectivity, the network will employ standard Internet protocols, hardware and software. It will be created by active collaboration among CUNY, The New York Academy of Medicine, the New York Metropolitan Library Agency (METRO), and the New York Public Library.