Led by the World Health Organization, the Health InterNetwork aims to strengthen public health services by providing public health workers, researchers and policy makers access to high-quality, relevant and timely health information, via the Internet in order to bridge the "digital divide".

6 to 8 HIN pilots are planned worldwide. India was selected as the first HIN pilot country because it has several priority public health programs as well as skills and resources that could contribute significantly to the development of the global Health InterNetwork.

The Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) is an initiative from Health InterNetwork to provide free or nearly free access to the major journals in biomedical and related social sciences, to public institutions in developing countries. HINARI provides a vast library of the latest and best information on public health: covers some 2000 journals.

On the site, journal abstracts are available to all users, without registration. Registered HINARI users have full-text access to journals. Non-HINARI users may still have full-text access, if their institutions subscribe to the journals.

Only public institutions (such as schools of medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy, universities, health and medical research institutes, government offices working in the health sector, and medical libraries) in developing countries are permitted to become members of HINARI.