CHIN: CarePages

CarePages are a great way to keep friends and family updated during a hospitalization or other health crisis. For C.H.I.N. members, the Portrait Gallery is another way to share your CHD experiences with other members, new parents using the Internet to find children or adults who have similar diagnoses, or have undergone similar treatments. The portrait gallery contains nearly 600 stories of hope and courage that are accessible to anyone searching for information about congenital heart defects. Portraits are indexed by name, diagnosis, and treatments and recently changed and updated portraits are easily accessed.

Portraits are edited by C.H.I.N. staff members and are updated every four to six weeks. While there are many benefits to professionally edited and formatted portrait pages, the publication schedule means that portraits are not a good way to communicate with friends and family members during a hospitalization.

CarePages	C.H.I.N. Portraits
Used to share timely information with friends, family, and invited guests.	Used to share CHD experiences with C.H.I.N. members, site visitors, friends, family, and the Internet at large. Portraits are indexed by the patient's name, diagnosis, treatment, and time of last update.
Intended to be read only by invited friends and family members. A free CarePages membership and password is required to access CarePages, and individual CarePages can be limited to invited guests only, or to anyone who knows the name of the CarePage.	Intended to be read by anyone interested in Congenital Heart Defects, including C.H.I.N. members, and non-members just starting out on the CHD journey. Portraits are indexed by all major search engines, making them easy to find and are read by thousands of site visitors literally from all over the world.
Are created and edited by the CarePage owner—usually a family member or the patient.	Are professionally edited by C.H.I.N. staff members using text and photos provided by a family member or the patient.
Contain personal information.	Contain as little personal information as possible.
May be updated whenever the owner wishes to make a change.	Updated by C.H.I.N. staff every four to six weeks.
Allow visitors to leave messages for the patient or family members on a bulletin board.	Portrait authors may receive email, but all such email is screened by C.H.I.N. staff members for appropriateness. (A web contact form is under development.)
Available to all C.H.I.N. Members and website visitors who are affected by CHD.	Available only to C.H.I.N. members.

CarePages are intended to be read by invited friends and family, are created and edited by family members or the patient, can be used to share personal information, and require that viewers create a free account and password (friends and family are "invited" to each CarePage and must log in to view the page).

C.H.I.N. portraits are intended to be read by the internet at large (they are indexed by all major search engines), are created and edited by C.H.I.N. staff from text and photos provided by the member, and are available only to current C.H.I.N. members,

If you are a C.H.I.N. member, and would like to tell your story or your child's story and reach the largest possible audience, the C.H.I.N. portrait gallery is the best choice. For communicating with friends and family in a very timely way, CarePages provide the best option. And, of course, C.H.I.N. members have both options.

The C.H.I.N. Portrait Gallery