The UCLA School of Public Health is partnering with the California-based health insurer Health Net to create a new social networking Web site targeting adolescents enrolled in Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, Payers & Providers reports.
Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program, and Healthy Families is the state's Children's Health Insurance Program.
The site aims to encourage teenagers to take advantage of available public health services. The platform will contain blogs, instant messaging, video postings and other features.
Researchers plan to examine teen usage of the site to identify effective strategies for promoting health information.
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health provided a $1.1 million grant for the social networking site and the accompanying study (Payers & Providers, 2/11).