1. What is the author’s expertise on the topic?
This website did not have a specific name of an author. Therefore I decided to check the authenticity of a member of the Gilead’s board of directors. The volunteer president of Gilead is a Mr. Michael Savage. He is also CEO of Access Community Health Network. (http://www.accesscommunityhealth.net/home.php)
I followed up on his credentials. Access Community Health Network is Chicago’s largest private community health center organization. It has an accreditation from Joint Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) (http://www.jcaho.org/) According to JCAHO this is a stellar organization that operates 27 health centers and services nearly 80,000 patients. Now that I knew that Mr. Savage worked for a respectable company, I went to see if I could find out anything about him personally.
There seems to be a major TV personality by the same name and was difficult to locate anything about my Mr. Savage. I did come across an agenda of a meeting he attended last June. At this meeting were many reliable health officials, names that I heard of through the newspapers. (ex: Quentin Young). (http://www.ohhpf.org/)
By checking out the volunteer president of Gilead, looking at the rating of the company where he was CEO, I made I believe a logical assumption that Gilead is a reputable health referral organization and the information given on it’s website is truthful and legitimate.
Also one of Gilead’s links is to clinics that work with Gilead. A few of these clinics are in my school area and work with our school for mental health and other related issues. I called one and they knew all about Gilead and gave it high praise.
2. How reliable is the publisher’s(site) of this web page?
The publisher of this website is the Gilead organization. As I was going through the links I came across the name of Thomas Tresser. Mr. Tresser is a web designer that specializes in developing strategic marketing concepts for fund raising and presenting information for non-profit organizations. (http://www.tresser.com) On one of the links was a Gilead Campaign for the uninsured. This sight was created by Mr.Tresser. I followed Mr. Tresser’s website and discovered a resume about his services. Mr. Tresser has done work for Chicago Park District, Information Technology Resource Center, Second City, etc. and has been published also. His presentation about the Gilead Center was very forthcoming about the uninsured in Illinois and the need to have this center. He seems to be another reliable and reputable source for the publication of this website.
3. How reliable are the pages that the author’s page link to?
The links on this site are basically promotional material about the how’s
and why’s of this health outreach and referral agency. The links discuss
their mission, how they carry out their mission, an image type link, message
from the president and a list of administrative staff.
One link lists all the outreach health agencies that work with the Gilead Center.
It explains who is eligible and the services that are available to you if you
do not have money to pay for insurance.
There was one link that added new information about the Gilead Center. It explained about the development of the Gilead Outreach and Referral Center. This was the link to the United Power for Action and Justice. (UPAJ). (http://www.united-power.org/) I therefore decided to do so more investigative evaluation.
I went to the UPAJ link. Their site elaborated on the development on the UPAJ and it’s purposes. It had other links that went into detail about the creation of the Gilead Outreach and Referral Center.
The following information came from the Chicago Sun-Times’s article published October 20, 1997. (www.tresser.com/upajinnews.htm) This article was part of an image brochure designed by Mr. Tesser. I am assuming he also does some aspect of the Gilead’s public relations.
I learned from this newspaper article that the UPAJ is a coalition of nearly 300 groups made up of blacks, whites, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Latinos, labor unions, community organizations and youth groups. The idea was to create an interracial and multinational outreach umbrella type organization. Together many of the organizations that are supported by all these different groups of people support the UPAJ who then in turn funds such organizations as the Gilead Outreach and Referral Center. The major purpose of the Gilead Center is to connect people of all races and ethnic identities with affordable health benefit programs. Gilead will locate health programs, assist in the paper work and give moral support to individuals as they go through the process of getting health care.
4. Do other reliable (or unreliable) pages provide links to the author’s
page?
I went to Ixquick, Alta Vista, Lycos and Teoma. They all had links that went to the Gilead Center. Alta Vista had a few Gilead sites asking for volunteers. I did explore different links at different sites but they all were basically the same. Some websites were government type documents with either the name of Gilead Center as part of the coalition that did research on health issues or the document referred to Gilead as a health referral agency.
5. What information on the topic is available from traditional sources, such
as newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias or library sources?
I found articles about the United Power for Action and Justice organization, which helped launch the Gilead Outreach program. They were found in the following newspapers: Pioneer Press, November 6, 1997 (Evanston) North Shore Magazine, January 1998 and Chicago Sun-Times, October 20, 1997.
6. How recently was the page published or updated?
The date on this website was 2002. The Gilead Referral and Outreach Center was created in 2000.
7. Assess the accuracy of the information in the document.
The four main areas that I did investigative research were in the organization of United Power for Action and Justice, Mr. Michael Savage, Access Community Health Network, and Mr. Tom Tresser,
The information about the umbrella organization UPAJ seemed to be very accurate. It received wonderful press in the articles that I read about it. UPAJ intentions to create a referral center for those have trouble getting insurance were sincere and real. I learned through research that the Gilead Referral Center was given a grant of a million dollars from the Springfield legislature to start its services. Companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Illinois Catholic and Healthcare Association and Illinois Academy of Family Physician, were instrumental in the design of the Gilead Center.
Mr. Savage and the company he is CEO, Access to Community Health Network, all have excellent reputations. Mr. Tresser, in charge of public relations and web marketing strategies, is very highly regarded and respected. Due to these specific web evaluation areas that I mentioned I could safely ascertain that this site’s information is accurate.
8. Does this page show signs of bias in its perspective or presentation?
I do not notice any bias in its presentation. The web page is quite straightforward. There are no advertisements, there are not any links that are not just general helpful information, and no slick selling strategies to use this service. This appears to be an honest attempt to offer information and aid to people who want quality healthcare but cannot afford it. Actually, I think the site’s simplicity is an asset to the Gilead’s purpose.
One of the links is The Gilead Report. There are four of these reports and I read two of them. The Gilead Report is two pages long and reports on health issues of different ethnic and racial groups. This report quote’s its sources and does show some bias in its perspective. It does present statistics, facts about the uninsured that make the reader somewhat more sympathetic to their plight. The reports are quite informative about health care for those who are not insured.
9. What evidence is provided to support opinions and conclusions expressed in
the document?
In this website there isn’t any evidence to specifically prove the legitimacy of this referral agency. I have found, through links, certain facts that I believe support the information given on this site. The Gilead Center is under the auspices of the United Power for Action and Justice. The UPAJ in creating the Gilead Center has the support of Blue Cross Blue Shield, Advocate Health Care, Metropolitan Chicago Health Care Council and the State of Illinois Department of Public Aid. These organizations have pledged up to two million dollars for the Gilead Center. The volunteer president is a man who is also CEO of an established health network. The UPAJ is a credible organization of over 300 community, religious and union groups who are dedicated to help the uninsurable in Chicago.
10. Can you contact someone with expertise in the area to validate the opinions
or conclusions expressed in the document?
This website is on my big ten list for my lesson plan. I only know about the Gilead Center because I know a specific family that has used its services. The father of this family is blind and the mother cannot work due to an epileptic condition. The Gilead Outreach Center has helped them find free health care, fill out forms and did follow-up work for this family.