Are We There Yet?
The Search for Online Medical Information
It's an old truism, but it's still, well, true. Sometimes too
much of something good can be a bad thing. The genuine mountain
of medical information and data waiting for you on the Internet
is a perfect example of this principle. Although it is comforting
to know that the answers to your questions are likely hidden somewhere
in the digital thicket, the daunting task of untangling the various
strands and links to find what you're looking for can be overwhelming.
Where do you start when trying to match a symptom set to its contributing
disease' Which site represents your best chance at finding information
on possible side effects from the new medication your doctor is
considering prescribing for you? These questions can be answered
quickly and accurately if you know where to look. This article
will focus on three areas: all-in-one, general health care websites,
educational sites sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, and government
health care sites. Hopefully, we'll help you uncover some quick
and easy ways to find the reliable, up-to-date health information
you need.
One-Stop Health Info Shops
Some of the most valuable sites on the Internet are those that
act as a clearinghouse for health care information. These sprawling
online destinations offer comprehensive and extensive collections
of content, the depths of which are matched only by their breadth.
For many patients and health care consumers, these sites represent
the best starting point when looking for health care information
on the Internet. Not only are you likely to find at least some
information on all but the most obscure health-related queries,
but these sites also often feature links to other, more specialized
resources, and also strive to take full advantage of the unique
educational potential afforded by the Internet by incorporating
multimedia content, animations, inter-active chat and question
forums, and other enhanced learning tools. Plus, everything is
written with the patient in mind, so content is easily understood
and many of your most likely questions and concerns have been anticipated
and incor-porated (after all, there are many others who are going
through the same experiences as you). These sites usually organize
their content by disease state to further speed your searching,
and the universal “Search” function offered by all allows you to
find exactly what you want without clicking through section after
section.
Two great options are WebMD.com and Intelihealth.com. WebMD (http://my.webmd.com/webmdtoday/home/
default.htm) offers literally thousands of pages of detailed
information on virtually every condition, health concern, and
treatment. Patients can also find information on secondary health
concerns, such as advice on nutrition management, pregnancy,
and other lifestyle issues, keep track of important information
via an online health record, locate a specialist with the “Doctor
Finder,” and stay up-to-date on the changing world of health
insurance. These resources, plus all manner of quizzes and calculators,
drug info, in-depth health care news, and other features, cement
WebMD’s status as one of the most trusted and popular online
health care destinations. Intelihealth (www.intelihealth.com)
offers daily news updates, in-depth information on diseases and
conditions, an online medical dictionary, and sections on addiction,
weight management, workplace health, complementary medicine,
nutrition, gender- and age- specific information, medical procedures
and tests, prescription and over-the-counter medications. Discussion
boards and moderated chat forums, an impressive collection of
interactive tools, and dental health information round out the
site’s resources.
Other reliable and useful sites include FamilyDoctor.org (www.familydoctor.org),
which provides information on a wide range of diseases and medical
topics, all written and reviewed by members of the American Academy
of Family Physicians, and DiscoveryHealth.com (http://health.discovery.com),
which offers a Drug Reference Center, Disease and Conditions Topics
A-to-Z, expert opinion, and some of the best interactive and multimedia
content to be found on the medical Internet.
Yahoo! Health (http://health.yahoo.com)
is, like its parent search portal, a great way to quickly refine
your search. Its Health Encyclopedia provides thorough definitions
for thousands of medical terms and phrases, covering everything
from Aarskog Syndrome (an inherited disease characterized by short
stature, facial abnormalities, musculoskeletal, and genital anomalies)
to milia (superficial inclusion cysts in the skin or mucous membranes)
to Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome (caused by gastrin-secreting tumors
of the pancreas that causes severe irritation and ulceration of
the upper gastrointestinal tract). Yahoo! Health also offers an
alphabetized drug index, an opportunity to “Ask the Doctor” questions
about medicine, and information on clinical trials, bioterrorism,
and nutrition and fitness. Healthology (www.healthology.com),
through its Health Information Library, has fully embraced the
multimedia aspect of the Internet by hosting dozens of video webcasts
covering all manner of health-related topics. Currently showing
broadcasts include “Treatment of CML: State of the Art and Beyond,” “Discussing
Sleep Problems With Your Doctor,” “The Basics of Allergy,” and “Why
Do Some MS Drugs Lose Effectiveness?” Each program comes complete
with a transcript and brief synopsis; links to related webcasts
are also provided.
Pharmaceutical Companies
Predictably, considering all the research that goes into creating
and manufacturing prescription medications, pharmaceutical companies
have amassed a lot of data on the illnesses and conditions their
products are designed to treat. In addition to the websites they
create that provide information on the individual drugs themselves,
many pharmaceutical companies also offer educational websites featuring
information and other resources on a broad range of medical conditions.
A good rule of thumb is if a company makes a medication to treat
a given illness or disease, it likely also produces an educational
companion website. The variety and quality of these online resources
is rather amazing. All offer details about symptoms and treatment;
many go an extra step and provide “Ask the Expert” features, coping
advice, lists of questions to ask your doctor, tips on making lifestyle
and dietary changes that can lessen a disease’s impact, and more.
The sites represented on the chart below are just the tip of the
iceberg.
Government Sites
The government sponsors dozens of websites devoted to dispensing
information on every health care-related topic under the sun. These
sites are well designed, easily navigated, and informative. Best
of all, much of the content links to other government sites, enabling
further research. Many of the sites sponsored by the US Department
of Health and Human Services, while extensive, do at least concentrate
on one particular area of health care (and sometimes on one individual
disease). Even so, these sites’ thoroughness makes navigating around
them and finding what you’re looking for seem like a daunting task.
It needn’t be; remember: the Search function is your friend. Usually
a few simple queries will produce a bounty of reliable information.
Also aiding you in your quest is the fact that often these sites
have their content organized into logical subgroups and sections.
For example, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s main
age offers information divided into, “Health Information,” “Scientific
Resources,” “News and Press Releases,” “Studies Seeking Patients,” and
other helpful categories.
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Health Care News
Medical Care At Home
Medical Glossaries and Dictionaries
Other Useful Government Sites
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Health.gov (www.health.gov)
is an excellent jumping off point for your forays into the world
of federally provided Internet health care information. From this
one page, you can link to the site of the US Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS), the main sites of the various agencies
that make up HHS, including the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (www.cdc.gov),
the Health Resources and Services Administration (www.hrsa.gov),
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (www.samhsa.gov),
and the Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov), and the Federal
Health Information Centers and Clearinghouses (www.health.gov/nhic/Pubs/clearinghouses.htm).
That last site offers contact information for, and a synopsis of
the missions of, dozens of federal departments, from the National
Adoption Center to the US Federal Consumer Information Center.
Your next online visit with the feds should be MEDLINEplus (http://medlineplus.gov).
This site is a service of the US National Library of Medicine (www.nlm.nih.gov)
and the National Institutes of Health (more on them in a bit) and
is basically a government version of the all-in-one health care
sites described earlier. Visitors can select from among more than
600 health topics on disorders and conditions organized according
to afflicted body location or system, demographic group affected,
and most frequently searched-for topics. Each of the health topics
is further divided into dozens of subsections (the “Cancers” topic
includes information on more than 60 types of cancer and cancer-related
issues). The actual information to be found is of the highest quality
and includes general information and overviews of the subject matter,
clinical trial info, data on diagnosis and symptoms, prevention
and treatment, statistics, and more. The source of the information
provided by each data link is clearly marked (the American Cancer
Society, American Academy of Family Physicians, and other trusted
groups), allowing for further research. Other available content
can include, but is not limited to, interactive tutorials, dictionaries
and medical glossaries, prescription and OTC drug medication, the
latest research news, and more.
The National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov),
or NIH, is actually composed of 27 member agencies and centers;
go to this site (www.nih.gov/icd)
for brief descriptions of each NIH component and a link to its
main website. Each NIH agency focuses on a specific area of health
care; many of the names of the individual institutes are probably
already familiar:
Each site offers detailed, necessary, and comprehensive information
on all diseases and related issues that fall within their purview.
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