Virginia residents have a new, free source for health care information. Today marks the public launch of the Virginia Health Information Project at http://www.vahealth.info. Two years in the making, the Web site is designed to be a one-stop source for reliable, unbiased information.

“More people are turning to the Web for health information but may get overwhelmed if they google something,” says Jeanna Beker, director of The Soho Center, a nonprofit based in Madison County that sponsors the site. “We’ve tried to consider the needs of the broad public to make it easy for people of all ages to get good information.”

So what can you find at the site? A little bit of everything.  Daily updates on health news. A health library. Parents can learn about childhood immunizations while seniors can check out prescription drug plans. The site also provides links and information on 14,000 health-related hotlines, many in English and Spanish.

The site’s initial funding of $51,000 came from the state attorney general’s office as part of a nationwide antitrust suit against distributors of the George Foreman grill.  Salton Inc. agreed to pay $8 million to settle charges of pressuring stores into charging artificially high prices for the grill and to removing competitors’ grills from the shelves. The settlement directed states to use their share of the money to help charities or government agencies improve health care and nutrition.