State health officials yesterday launched a Web site to provide community health organizations, advocacy groups and healthcare professionals with a way to track health-related information and implement programs to address public health concerns.

Chiyome Fukino, Health Department director, said the data present "the most comprehensive picture" available of what makes Hawai'i residents healthy or sick and how communities compare with one another. The data also will allow health experts to identify trends in the health of Hawai'i residents because the information is broken down into many subgroups.

"We are equipping the public with data so that together we can work on improving health for everyone in Hawai'i," Fukino said. "For the first time, the public will have easy access to the majority of the Department of Health's data and can compare differences in health among Hawai'i's ethnicities, geographical areas, and varying income and education levels."

Much of the data had not been available to the public or was available on a limited basis, she said. This includes the natitonal Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, which collects information on maternal attitudes and experiences before, during and after pregnancy.

The Web site also has information specific to Hawai'i, such as health disparities among demographic groups, chronic disease, alcohol and tobacco use, access to health insurance, lifestyle, mortality and lifestyle.

"This Web site allows people to obtain information that is more meaningful to and reflective of Hawai'i's population," said Robert Hirokawa, epidemiologist with the Healthy Hawai'i Initiative. "It can help people learn more about the many factors that may affect the health of Hawai'i's communities on many different levels."

The information should be useful to researchers, those who write health-related grants, and people involved in the planning of public health programs, said Health Department spokeswoman Alice Silbanuz.

She said the department will hold workshops starting next week to get feedback from the community on how to improve the Web site.

"We will be able to provide more data via the Web site, but right now this is the first installation," Silbanuz said. "It's the first wave of many updates that will come."