		Growth House a wide variety of services to help other end-of-life care organizations be successful on the internet. We have several different guided tours that can help you find a service that is right for your needs. Guided tours highlight talking points of interest to content providers, webmasters, advertisers, and individual health care providers. To arrange a custom tour just for you, give us a call at 415-863-3045.
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Growth House Guided Tours For Content Providers

IICN Overview

Institutional Members

The IICN is an affiliate network of over forty major health care organizations involved with end-of-life care.
The acronym "IICN" stands for "Inter-Institutional Collaborating Network on End-of-Life Care."
The IICN was founded in 1998 by Growth House and is operated by Growth House for the benefit of all IICN members.
The IICN is an international educational consortium specializing in end-of-life care. IICN members distribute information about their programs and make their educational materials available through our online content syndication systems.
The IICN network distributes over 4,000 pages of high-quality information from multiple content sources providers to multiple end-point web sites.
IICN members can get highly-visible placement within the syndication network.
IICN members may utilize online content from one another on their own web sites, extending their content depth at virtually no marginal cost.
IICN members may use our sophisticated web-based CIFWriter content management system to create or repurpose educational modules that are "plug-and-play" with the IICN distribution network. Education content created in this way can be delivered in multiple output formats, including web, CD-ROM, XML, and RSS spinoff products from a single content source. Content developers may scheduled a demo of the CIFWriter system upon request, using a sample of your own content for a live test.
IICN members may use our centralized Professional Forum electronic mailing lists to promote their events and content.

Levels of Membership

General Members

Sustaining Members

Cost: General Membership is free for qualifying non-profit organizations. To qualify your non-profit organization must be directly connected with end-of-life care and must either provide content for use within the IICN or provide access to the IICN MegaSearch service on your own web site.

Sustaining Membership includes four hours per month of direct support by Growth House to ensure a high level of visibility for your organization. If you are doing a promotional campaign, each month we will work with you to find an appropriate method to give visibility to your organization.
Sustaining Members may include a co-branded minisite on the Growth House web site to give higher visibility to their organization. Content of the minisite is determine mutually by the Sustaining Member and by Growth House. Small minisites are generally fully-funded by a six-month membership fee. Larger minisites may require additional labor, which will be quoted on a time and materials basis.
Sustaining Members may wish to produce an interview to promote their project on Growth House Radio, our streaming media education service. This service is generally covered by one month's labor allowance.
Sustaining Members may find the advertising footer service on our global email system to be helpful in promoting events and services.
Since positioning in the Growth House search engine is determined in part by priorties set by Growth House, your position in search results can be optimized.
Sustaining Members may wish to advertise their services via the main Growth House RSS feed, a syndicated content service that is picked up by many feed consolidation systems such as Bloglines and SOAPclient.
Cost: Sustaining membership is available at $3600 per year for organizations that otherwise qualify as General Members and that want higher visibility. Sustaining Members defray the cost of operation of the overall system for the benefit of all members. The minimum term for a Sustaining Membership is six months ($1800). Since your Sustaining Membership includes four hours of consulting and labor each month, the hourly rate is $75 per hour, a 38% discount from our regular hourly rate of $120 per hour.

Month-To-Month Promotions

Some organizations have short-term promotional requirements that are best-served through short-term arrangements. Any organization that qualifies for General Membership can engage a month-to-month promotional service. One monthly fee covers four hours of promotional consulting and direct service by Growth House. Each month we will work with you to find ways to promote your book, project, or organization using the various advertising resources available.
Cost: $480 per month ($120 per hour).

Reach Your Audience Via Email

IICN Individual User Registration

Over 19,000 health care professionals working in end-of-life care have IICN Individual User accounts in our Professional Forum.
IICN user registrations are monitored to ensure that accounts are being used by health care professionals and allied hospice professions such as medicine, social work, bereavement care, and pastoral services.
Growth House maintains an ongoing relationship with IICN Individual Users that spans multiple institutions and projects. Users only need one account to receive information from many sources.
Cost: Individual User Accounts are free for qualifying professionals.

Mailing Lists

The IICN has over 70 specialized mailing lists related to end-of-life care.
Access to all lists is done via our Professional Forum.
IICN Individual Users subscribe to these lists depending on their interests, such as pain and symptom management, palliative care programs, hospice social work, bereavement, pastoral care, and music thanatology.
Each mailing list is moderated by experts, eliminating spam and trivial posts to ensure high-relevancy for each message that is approved.
Every message includes an advertising footer that can feature your project or service. This option is available for Sustaining Members.
Email bridge arrangements enable you to create online archives for lists that you maintain on other email services.
Archival versions of lists enable users to read content via the web in a searchable format going back over many years. Archival versions of lists include the Last Acts discussion list and case reviews done through the original EPEC Project case discussion list.
Growth House does not sell or rent mailing lists. You may post to these lists by opening an IICN Individual User account and participating in a list as would any other professional.
Cost: There is no charge to post qualifying content to any of our public mailing lists.

Get Visibility At Growth House

Growth House Co-Branded Minisites

Growth House provides co-branded minisites to increase visibility for important content in end-of-life care.
Co-branded minisites give you a way to expose your content to a wide audience that may not know about your organization and drive traffic back to your main web site.
Co-branded minisites are easy to create by simply recycling content you already have, increasing readership and amortizing the content development cost over a larger audience. This is the simplest example of content syndication via the internet, involving copies of content.
Co-branded minisites also provide complete web archival services for time-limited projects in end-of-life care. This is "end-of-life care planning" if your web sites will not have ongoing funding.This option gives your project with the ability to store and distribute content that was developed through short-term funding via a long-term archival arrangement, even if your project does not have a web site of its own.
Content archived in this manner is available across multiple web sites via the IICN MegaSearch.
Examples of co-branded minisites include:
1. the Stanford University End-of-Life Curriculum
2. EPERC's Fast Facts
3. the National Hospice Workgroup
4. the Promoting Excellence National Instrument Database
5. the HIV/AIDS Palliative Care Workgroup
6. the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospice-Veterans Partnership Toolkit
7. the Wit Film Project
8. the Kaiser-Permanente Palliative Care Toolkit
9. the Dartmouth Charting Your Course cancer materials.
Cost: Co-branded mini-sites are available for Sustaining Members based on their prepaid labor allowance of four hours per month. Larger projects may require additional effort, which may be billed on a time and materials basis. These fees may be waived for qualifying content.

Growth House Radio

Growth House provides complete streaming audio and video services using the Windows Media Architecture methodologies.
Growth House Radio provides several channels of audio "edu-tainment" related to end-of-life care. An interview on Growth House Radio's "talk show" format can help give visibility to your project or book.
Audio-video content can be syndicated for use on multiple web sites.
Growth House Radio can repurpose your existing written content to audio format at very low incremental cost, with links to HTML or downloadable versions of the text.
Cost: Production costs for audio materials depend on the number of hours it will take. Sustaining Members are encouraged to use one of their monthly labor allotments to create an audio segment for use on Growth House Radio.

Remote Search: Content Syndication In Action

Remote Search: IICN MegaSearch

Over 4,000 pages of full-text high-quality educational content on end-of-life care is available from over forty content providers in a single searchable format.
All content is co-branded with the providing institution, including links to drive traffic back to the provider's web site.
Syndicated IICN content is provided via the network in Content Interchange Format (CIF) so it transparently integrates with the member web sites. Use right click + "Properties" to reveal actual location of where content is coming from.
Can be implemented on any web site via a simple frameset that includes your own branding information. No Javascript or other special coding method is needed.
Member web sites of the IICN content syndicate import and export content directly among one another without going to the Growth House web site.
Content can be developed and maintained by non-technical people using our web-based content management system (CIFwriter). CIFwriter is fully integrated with the IICN and handles all details of content distribution for the MegaSearch and other syndicated content features. CIFwriter is provided by our commercial partner MyWhatever.com. CIFwriter demos can be arranged upon request.
Sample the IICN MegaSearch from these demo sites:
1. the Center for Palliative Care Studies
2. the Population-Based Palliative Care Research Network
3. the Colorado Hospice Foundation
4. the American Hospice Foundation
5. the Americans For Better Care of the Dying
6. the CODA Alliance
7. the Ethos Consulting Group
Cost: Qualifying web sites can install the IICN MegaSearch at no charge. Installation is very simple, and Growth House will provide up to four hours of free consultation to assist your webmaster with the installation.

Remote Search: Growth House "Classic" Search

Over 100 web sites have installed the Growth House "Classic" search tool that provides links to recommended web sites for end-of-life care. This tool allows these web sites to offer web link lists without the need to maintain their own lists.
Can be implemented on any web page with no need for frames, Javascript, or any other special coding methods.
This service provides the net's most comprehensive directory of reviewed resources for end of life care.
Demo from:
1. National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services (UK)
2. Missoula Demonstration Project
3. Brown University (Joan Teno's Toolkit)
4. New Mexico Palliative Care System
5. Associazione Gioco e Studio in Ospedale (Italy): Look for Growth House search engine at bottom of page
Cost: Qualifying web sites can install the Classic Search at no charge. Installation is very simple, and Growth House will provide up to four hours of free consultation to assist your webmaster with the installation.

Remote Search: XML MegaSearch

For advanced integration with your site we offers an XML interface for the IICN MegaSearch.
Can be implemented on any web site supporting XML.
Cost: XML access is offered to Sustaining Members of the IICN and through other specialized licensing arrangements. XML services are more labor-intensive than other forms of syndication, and additional consulting time may be required.

Other Services

Growth House Web Hosting Services

Growth House provides complete web hosting services for selected clients in end-of-life care.
Hosts registered domains like www.promotingexcellence.org or www.medicaring.org
Sites hosted by Growth House are tightly integrated with all IICN services and technologies and can co-brand as extensions to the main Growth House web site, e.g. www.growthhouse.org/promotingexcellence.
Cost: Web hosting may be offered to Sustaining Members of the IICN through specialized arrangements. Hosting services may involve time and materials charges.

Online Books

Growth House has coverted the full text of three books by Oxford University Press related to end-of-life care.
The full text of these books is integrated with the IICN MegaSearch, making it available across multiple web sites.
The online books are also accessible via mini-sites within the Growth House web site.
The online format is designed to stimulate sales of the print version of the book via automatic integration with the Amazon.com online ordering system.
We are testing delivery of content to hand-held devices via the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP). Ask for a demo of how your content can be delivered to palm devices and even cell phones using our integrated systems.
See Handbook for Mortals, Palliative Care Perspectives, and Improving Care For The End Of Life.
Cost: We will develop a time and materials cost estimate for you based on examination of your source materials. Cost estimates are most effective when based on a sample conversion of a small portion of the source materials. This estimation can be done at no charge and can result in a working sample of how your materials will operate on the web.

Wireless Access Protocol (WAP)

We are testing delivery of content to hand-held devices via the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP). Ask for a demo of how your content can be delivered to palm devices and even cell phones using our integrated systems.
Cost: We will develop a time and materials cost estimate for you based on examination of your source materials. Cost estimates are most effective when based on a sample conversion of a small portion of the source materials. This estimation can be done at no charge and can result in a working sample of how your materials will operate on the web.

RSS 2.0 Feeds

RSS 2.0 feeds are available as an optional output format for content that has been placed into our CIFWriter content management system.
Sustaining Members may wish to advertise their services via the main Growth House RSS feed, which is syndicated by many feed consolidation systems such as Bloglines and SOAPclient.
Your optional RSS feeds integrate with your HTML content, driving traffic to your primary HTML pages.
RSS feeds are suitable for inclusion in blogs and online news syndication systems.
Cost: There is no incremental charge for RSS output from our content management system. Use of CIFWriter is available for Sustaining Members. Fees for use of CIFWriter may be waived for General Members who are developing content deemed important by Growth House.