The 17th annual WebAward competition has honored the Ida Institute with a Standard of Excellence Award in the Nonprofit Category. This is the fourth time that www.idainstitute.com has been recognized in the world's premier award competition for web developers and marketers.
Produced by the Web Marketing Association, the WebAwards competition honors exemplary websites. WebAward entrants from 96 unique industries are judged by a team of independent Internet professionals and members of the media. Each entry is evaluated on design, interactivity, technology, content, innovation, copywriting and ease of use.
Judges praised idainstitute.com for its "great simple design" and content that was "to the point and easy to digest."
"We are very pleased that the WebAwards have again recognized idainstitute.com," says Ida Institute Managing Director Lise Lotte Bundesen. "In the four years that we have been honored with a WebAward, our website has grown significantly with the addition of a variety of new tools, videos, networking forums and more. Our goal is to continually update and expand the information we freely share through our website so that idainstitute.com remains valuable and relevant to clinicians, educators, students and others who support a paradigm shift to more patient-centered care. At the same time, we want access to be intuitive and seamless so that visitors can quickly find the information and materials they need. This newest recognition from the WebAwards tells us that we are succeeding."
Among the innovative content added to the website in recent months are two new additions to the Ida Tool Room. The Change Guide is designed to assist clinicians in fostering the changes required to successfully apply the Ida tools in clinical practice. The new tool employs a combination of step-by-step change activities, videos, case histories and reflective exercises to support the change to more patient-centered care.
The new Time & Talk tool is a method for teaching both student and practicing hearing care professionals that encourages them to reflect on their own communication with patients and learn valuable skills that can be applied in clinical practice. The tool's experiential learning approach uses scenarios and role-plays of mock consultation sessions that allow role-players as well as observers to share in the insights gained.
Other additions to the website include new pediatric audiology resources that facilitate easy implementation of the My World tool in day-to-day practice. The tool uses a child-friendly format to allow the clinician and child to explore how hearing loss affects the child in daily life and to collaborate on formulating effective goals and strategies for better communication.
In response to requests from practicing audiologists, educators and students, Ida Institute has also introduced a Research Library that features a collection of resource articles, scholarly reports and commentary on Ida tools and patient-centered care.
"The My Ida online community continues to grow and we know from web analytics that the thousands of visitors to our site have a high level of engagement," says Ida Web Content Editor Timothy Cooke. "We will continue to look for ways to improve the website's usability and overall functionality to make it even easier for members of Ida's global online community to share knowledge and discuss topics."