WEB RESOURCES

Health Information Web Sites

American Board of Medical Specialties, http://www.abms.org/Who_We_Help/Consumers/ This site that provides information regarding the board certification of physicians and why that may be helpful. A free service that the ABMS provides is a check to see if your doctor is board-certified. It does require e-mail registration.

American Cancer Society, http://www.cancer.org, A web site with a lot of information but not many illustrations or graphics. This is from the American Cancer Society and covers information at all stages of this disease.

Drug Library – Drug Digest, http://drugdigest.org, This is another good reference site with information on over 1500 drugs. Over 6000 images of pills can be viewed through this site. Check for interactions; compare drugs, look-up information on herbs and supplements. Verified by the HONcode, which is said to be “the oldest and most used ethical and trustworthy code for medical and health related information on the Internet.”

Fitday – Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal, http://www.fitday.com/, I added this because it is a free method to track your diet, record your exercises, view the particulars of a diet including calories, nutrition, and weight loss to name a few areas. To be certain there are advertisements on this site but the tools that you can use are free after you register.

Healthnet, University of Connecticut Health Center, http://library.uchc.edu/departm/hnet/, Resource guides are available, current medical news links, library and Internet resources and a Healthnet newsletter are a few of the resources available to Connecticut through this portal. Medical questions can be asked if you are a Connecticut citizen or guidelines on doing your own research are available. Call 860/679-4055 to ask a question and experienced medical information professionals can research the subject and provide you with a customized packet of information. The staff is available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday – Friday.

iMedix – Health Community, http://www.imedix.com/, iMedix is a free website to help find and share health information. It is listed on PC World’s “100 Incredibly Useful Web Sites.” Here are health communities that individuals can speak with one another. Keep in mind this is like a huge community and does not offer medical advice. It is more of a large forum to share thoughts and perhaps vent. If that in itself helps then this source has served its purpose.

JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, http://jama.ama-assn.org, A good resource for information but the articles can be complex as this is a journal for physicians and researchers.

Medline Plus, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/, A site from the federal government, specifically from the U.S. national Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. Over 165 interactive tutorials, videos off surgical procedures, a link to clinical trials and senior health information are but a few of the features of this site. It is a great site to find links for over 750 health topics and to get links for a medical dictionary and encyclopedia. Current news links and press releases are also found on this immense collection of health information.

National Cancer Institute, http://www.cancer.gov/, This site is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Written in layman’s terms to get the information understood by all, this site is a great resource for those that seek timely and extensive information.

National Center for Health Statistics, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs, If you like data and statistics, then this is your place to check out. Data collected from birth, death, and medical records. A generous amount of hyperlinks to many other sites. In addition, a link to the complete Health Report for the United States for 2007.

National Library of Medicine, Directory of Health Organizations, http://dirline.nlm.nih.gov/ A good site to find information regarding health organizations. Over 8,000 records of agencies, referral centers, professional organizations, self-help organizations, community groups, and research institutes exist in this government sponsored website. Records can be searched by keyword or via a subject search of a disease or condition.

Physicians Desktop Reference, Health, http://www.pdrhealth.com/home/home.aspx, “5 Star” reference, good topic selection, including the following topics;
Drug & Supplements
Diseases and Conditions
Clinical Trials
Surgery
Interactive Tools for various health conditions

PubMed, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/, A service from the National Library of Medicine. This is the most extensive bibliographic database for health issues. The articles offered are not limited to US only publications. This link does have a learning curve to use effectively.

Case Memorial Library, http://www.orange.lioninc.org/, Always a great place to start and great people to work with on your most pressing questions on where to find information.