National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Websites
NCCAM
Westat provides information and referral materials and product development, database and Web development, and exhibit program development and support services to operate the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Clearinghouse. We respond to public inquiries and provide a team of science writers and editors who develop annual publication and production plans and research, write, edit, and fact check a variety of publications, including consumer fact sheets, newsletters, and research spotlights. In addition to developing content for NCCAM publications, the materials development team manages the internal and external peer review process. Westat staff have more than 100 publications in various stages of development or revision at any time.
Westat also works closely with NCCAM to maintain its public website, Intranet, and campaign subsites. Westat is currently migrating these sites to Drupal 7 from traditional HTML pages. Westat performs ongoing, targeted improvements to the websites based on usability testing and customer feedback. Westat also develops applications for the sites and ensures full compliance with Section 508.
Westat helped NCCAM develop a social marketing strategy and plan, advising them on Facebook and Twitter management and promotional tactics. We have also analyzed public website usage data and search engine results to identify opportunities for improving reach. Using search engine optimization and web writing techniques, we developed a content development approach to generate higher search results for Google, Bing (MSN), and Yahoo.
The NCCAM website has been recognized for excellence.
- 2011 NIH Plain Language Awards, Silver award (fact sheet)
- 2010 Web Health Awards, Gold award
- 2010 NIH Plain Language Awards, Gold award (press release)
- 2008 W3 Awards, Silver award (Government category)
- World Wide Web Health Awards, 2004-2008, 1 silver and 3 merit awards
- Scores that were consistently 3–6 points higher than the Federal government average on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (conducted in 2005 and 2006)
- 2004 Prevention magazine Best of the Web award (Best Alternative Medicine Site)
