Welcome to RHIN®

Many hospitals, clinics, community health centers, and voluntary organizations operating in the United States provide a broad range of health services to refugees and others with limited English proficiency. Discussing health conditions and available services can be challenging without timely access to reliable, culturally and linguistically appropriate information.

RHIN is a national collaborative partnership that has created a database of quality multilingual, public health resources for those providing care to resettled refugees and asylees. Resources include:

• Health education materials in various languages and formats (brochures, fact sheets, videos)
• Provider tools (including information on refugee populations and cultures)
• Links to related Web sites

RHIN also provides links to existing sites specializing in refugee health, provides access to medical information from the National Library of Medicine, and offers a variety of posted documents from health care providers throughout the country.

The RHIN national partnership enables resettled refugees, asylees, their health care providers, and public health administrators to easily access information relevant to health conditions and health services.

RHIN® Principal Objectives:

• Develop a database of multicultural/multilingual health information;
• Identify and make accessible culturally and linguistically appropriate health and medical information in order to improve health services for refugees and asylees
• Improve access to information concerning refugees' and asylees' health by state and local public health departments and other health professionals and refugee service providers
• Enable and encourage a “culture of information sharing and communication” among health care providers who specialize in refugee health

RHIN® Management

RHIN is guided by refugee health professionals and health information specialists. The RHIN Steering Committee is comprised of:

Jennifer Cochran, M.P.H
Director, Refugee and Immigrant Health Program
Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Gale Dutcher
Head, Office of Outreach and Special Populations
Division of Specialized Information Services
National Library of Medicine

Laura Hardcastle
Chief, Refugee Health Section
California Department of Health Services

Sam Householder
Director, Refugee Health Screening Program
Texas Department of Health

Laura Smith
Program Administrator
Florida Bureau of TB & Refugee Health

John Scott, RHIN Director
Center for Public Service Communications
Arlington, Virginia
info@rhin.org