Sharing information and experiences about maternal and child health data sets through the World Wide Web

Maternal and child health programs face increasing requirements to collect, analyze, and disseminate information on current health status and needs of population groups. Data sets vary according to data elements. Population groups, organizational and agency boundaries, and other situation-specific characteristics. Until recently, the major venue for sharing information about various dimensions of data sets has been informal, often word-of-mouth, communications. The World Wide Web provides an opportunity to replace these slow and incomplete information exchanges with instant and comprehensive ones. This article outlines the development of a web site that includes descriptive information about 12 MCH data sets.