Medical Information on the Web
by Irene E. McDermott
When you or your loved one gets a diagnosis, the first thing you will
want to do is get some current information. Here are some resources that
will give you a quick overview of your situation.
The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy
http://www.merck.com/pubs/mmanual
When doctors and nurses get sick, they turn to this standard of diagnosis.
Merck offers their 17th edition, published in 1999, for free. Completely
searchable, this online publication lists the causes, symptoms, and prognosis
of just about everything that can go wrong with you. It also covers mental
conditions, pediatrics, and infectious disease! Reading disease descriptions
in the Merck, I always start to feel a little funny, as if I were
developing the symptoms of all the ailments in the book.
The Merck Manual Home Edition
http://www.merckhomeedition.com
Is the regular Merck written medical terms that are too incomprehensible?
Search the Home Editionfor the same great information translated
into terms that even I can understand. Choose the plain text site, or
have fun with the cool, interactive version.
MayoClinic.com
http://www.mayohealth.org/home
The famous Mayo Clinic in Minnesota offers this resource, which gives
reliable, general information about many different ailments and conditions.
In addition to clear information about disease, MayoClinic.com offers
healthy lifestyle planners. Get started today reducing stress, stopping
smoking, and getting your weight under control. This is a great place
to start!
InteliHealth
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH
John Hopkins University has joined with Clinical Reference Systems, Ltd.
to bring you InteliHealth. This site aims to offer you the Web's most
comprehensive collection of consumer health information from the best
possible sources. Value added features include patient drug information
and access to the latest mainstream health news. Funding comes from Aetna
U.S. Healthcare, a national managed health care company.
MEDLINEplus Health Information
http://medlineplus.gov
The National Library of Medicine has assembled its resources onto one
attractive portal designed for general health consumers. Find information
here on conditions, diseases, drugs, and wellness. Use their medical dictionary
to translate those incomprehensible medical terms. You may also jump directly
from this site to ClinicalTrials.gov (http://ClinicalTrials.gov),
the medical research program from the National Institutes of Health.
MORE GENERAL CONSUMER HEALTH RESOURCES
American Medical Association
http://www.ama-assn.org
This site features a free Doctor Finder, and the full text of the Journal
of the American Medical Association (JAMA), This site also links to
information about specific health topics such as HIV, women's health,
and migraines.
HealthAnswers
http://www.healthanswers.com/default.asp
Orbis Broadcast Group developed this site, which offers very general
information on many health subjects. Good for browsing, but if you are
suffering a life-threatening illness, you will want to look at sources
with more depth.
Healthtouch: Online for Better Health
http://www.healthtouch.com
Medical Strategies, Inc. assembled this page of links primarily to pharmaceutical
and drug information. One particularly valuable service is the link to
drug information from Micromedex, Inc, a comprehensive, proprietary prescription
and over-the-counter drug database.
HealthWatch
http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/library/consumer.htm
HealthWatch is a Public Service of the Office of News and Publications
& the Library at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
at Dallas.
HealthWeb Consumer Health
http://healthweb.org/index.cfm
This resource is a collaborative effort between the Library of the Health
Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Committee on
Institutional Cooperation's HealthWeb project. It aims to be a quality
filter of health information for consumers, providing access and helpful
commentary on health sites. It has a clear, easy-to-navigate format that
includes links to Internet resources by ailment, medical publications,
and links to government, non-profit, and professional health organizations
and associations.
Wellness Web
http://wellweb.com
Executive Editor Lenore Howe tries "to put the HEART back in health
care" by assessing and assembling information about clinical trials,
community health, drug dosages and compliance, treatment options and research,
how to select a health care provider, reports on dozens of illnesses and
conditions, tips about healthy lifestyles, and alternative treatments.
Internet Mental Health
http://www.mentalhealth.com
Bodily distress aint the only kind of illness out there. While treating
the body, don't forget the mind. Canadian psychiatrist Phillip W. Long,
M.D. funds and runs this site, with very complete mental health information.
Find information on common mental disorders, read magazine articles, and
even diagnose yourself, using the site's online evaluation tools. This
is a great place to start for all kinds of mental distress.
DISEASE DIRECTORIES
Now that you have the basics on what is ailing you, you might want to explore
the breadth of information out there for you. You can get an idea of the
number and quality of sites dedicated to your condition by checking in these
directories.
Achoo Internet Healthcare Directory
http://www.achoo.com/main.asp
Achoo is owned and managed by the Canadian MNI Systems Corporation. Achoo
adopts a comprehensive interpretation of "health". They include
links to information about all aspects of healthcare, such as clinical
medicine, alternate medicine, as well as the business aspects of medicine.
This is a cool site, but never attains much depth.
Hardin Meta Directory of Internet Health Sources
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/index.html
Eric Rumsey compiled this site for the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
at the University of Iowa. He writes, "As the name "meta directory"
implies, Hardin MD is a "list of lists" - Its purpose is to
provide easy access to comprehensive resource lists in health-related
subjects. It includes subject listings in large "one-stop-shopping"
sites, such as Yahoo!, and also independent discipline-specific lists.
Hardin MD subject pages indicate the length of lists in each subject,
making it easy to see at a glance which lists are most comprehensive -
These are often not the lists from the "one-stop-shopping" sites,
but those developed by people within the field, which are well-known and
frequently cited within the field, but not well-known outside it."
Librarian's Index to the Internet Health and Medicine: Diseases &
Conditions
http://www.lii.org/search/file/diseases_and_conditions
The incomparable LII brings you this extensive list of links to annotated
site selections, chosen by librarians. If LII lists it, you know it is
an interesting and reliable resource.
Yahoo! Health: Diseases and Conditions
http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Diseases_and_Conditions
No matter what your complaint (including shyness), find Web resources
about it here in Yahoo!'s comprehensive list.
IN-DEPTH RESOURCES AND LITERATURE
When dealing with your cost-conscious HMO, you've got to know what is wrong
with you, you've got to know the latest treatment for it, then you've got
to demand it from your provider. Use these resources to find the latest
research developments for your symptoms.
Medscape.com
http://www.medscape.com
Designed for clinicians as well as consumers, Medscape.com offers the
Web's largest collection of free, full-text clinical medicine articles
enhanced with keyword searches, graphics, annotated links to Internet
resources, and more. 12 easily searchable databases including MEDLINE,
Medscape's full-text articles, news, patient information, medical images,
and much more. This site is free, but requires registration.
PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
The National Library of Medicine maintains the premier bibliographic database
covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and veterinary medicine.
Called MEDLINE, this resource contains bibliographic citations and author
abstracts from more than 4,000 biomedical journals. Use the PubMed interface
to search for abstracts of the latest research on what ails you. Warning:
these articles are written in "research-ese" and so can be difficult
to understand. Keep a medical dictionary on hand at all times for the
translation.
WebMedLit
http://www.webmedlit.com
This site tracks 23 well-known medical journals on the Web, including
the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the New England Journal of Medicine.
Articles, some with full text, are arranged by subject into nine categories:
AIDS/Virology, Cardiovascular, Cancer/Oncology, Dermatology, Diabetes/Endocrinology,
Gastroenterology, Medical Economics, Neurology, and Women's Health.
Internet Grateful Med
http://igm.nlm.nih.gov
Internet Grateful Med, like its cousin PubMed, offers free access not
only to MEDLINE, but to AIDSLINE, AIDSDRUGS, AIDSTRIALS, PREMEDLINE and
others: eleven medical journal citation indexes in all. Choose between
the two based on which search interface you prefer.
OTHER MEDICAL RESOURCES
Here are a couple of medical dictionaries to help you to translate medical
terms into English. Also, here are some sites that allow you to understand
the medicine you have been prescribed.
InteliHealth: Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIPN000/9276/9276.html?k=tnavx9276x9276
Just what is "adipose tissue", anyway? Find out using the online
version of the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, brought to you by InteliHealth.
PDR.net for Consumers
http://consumer.pdr.net/consumer
The Physician's Desk Reference is where doctors turn to decide
what medicine to give you. For the price of registration, search this
database to learn what medical professionals know about the drugs that
you are taking.
RxList.com
http://www.rxlist.com
This Internet drug index was founded and is maintained by Neil Sandow,
Pharm.D. Director of Pharmacy for several San Francisco area hospitals.
RxList lets you search by drug name, imprint code, or keyword, then offers
direct access to Taber's Medical Encyclopediafrom the result page.
OnHealth Medicine Checker
http://interactive.onhealth.com/conditions/resource/pharmacy/checker/index.asp
OnHealth brings you this drug interaction checker, based on a database
from Multum Information Services, Inc. Use the checker to mix as many
medicines as you like to see what will happen.
CANCER: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
Absolutely nothing! All right, I admit that I am a bit fixated on the topic
right now. Still, so many of us are, or love people who have been touched
by cancer. Use these links to find support, and perhaps, a cure. Many of
these same kinds of online resources are available for various calamitous
diseases, especially AIDs, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis.
CancerNet
http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov
This site, from the National Cancer Institute, a component of the National
Institutes of Health, is the most current, credible, and comprehensive
information center about cancer available on the Web. Most information
on CancerNet comes from PDQ, NCI's comprehensive cancer database. CancerNet
offers information about all the different types treatment, clinical trials,
genetics, causes, risk factors, prevention, testing, coping and more.
CANCERLIT
http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/canlit/canlit.htm
Use this interface to search the National Library of Medicine's CANCERLIT
bibliographic database. Topics include breast cancer, skin cancer, and
gynecologic cancers. A typical entry will include the title, author, source,
and abstract of a recently published article or meeting abstract. Each
monthly edition contains only those citations and abstracts that were
added to CANCERLIT on that topic during the current month. The last 6
monthly editions of each topic are also available at the site.
American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
http://www.asco.org
Here is where oncologists worldwide share their latest findings. Look
here to find a specialist in your particular cancer. Also, search their
article database for abstracts about the results of the latest experimental
treatments.
OncoLink
http://oncolink.upenn.edu
Located at the University of Pennsylvania, OncoLink is often cited as
one of the best resources anywhere on the Web. Although much of the physician-specific
information is copied directly from the NCI site (such as CANCERLIT),
it is presented in a way that is sometimes faster and easier to navigate.
The patient-specific information on the financial aspects of cancer treatment
and the frequently asked questions section is exceptional. It provides
a large collection of support groups, peer-reviewed journals, hospitals,
and other online references.
American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org
The American Cancer Society (ACS) site targets the most common cancer
types, such as lung, breast, and colon. It features modules on prostate
and breast cancer.
Medicine On-Line
http://www.meds.com
This is a commercial site published by UltiTech, Inc. of Stratford, Connecticut,
and sponsored by the drug companies Glaxo Wellcome Oncology/HIV and Parmacia
& Upjohn. Medicine On-Line offers medical information and education
about cancer, including Medline literature searches, Daily Oncology News
Digest, cancer discussion groups, and reports from medical meetings.
CanSearch
http://www.cansearch.org/canserch/canserch.htm
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, a not-for-profit support
organization sponsors this site. It attempts to bring together psychosocial
resources for cancer patients and their families by providing links to
Web sites around the world. The section describing clinical trials is
very well done and would be of value to any patient with newly diagnosed
cancer.
CLINICAL TRIALS
There are times when the regular treatment for a cancer or other diseases
just won't work. This was the case with my friend, whose metatastic cancer,
treated traditionally, would surely kill him. In that situation, it pays
to volunteer for a research protocol, a clinical trial, that admits you
into the newest experimental treatments. Not only does this path represent
your best chance for a cure, but you help others too, by advancing the research
process.
ClinicalTrials.gov
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov
The U.S. National Institutes of Health, through its National Library of
Medicine, has developed ClinicalTrials.gov to provide patients, family
members and members of the public current information about clinical research
studies. Browse trials by broad disease heading, or alphabetically, by
precise condition. Or, do a focused search that allows you to limit by
geographical location.
CenterWatch Clinical Trials Listing Service
http://www.centerwatch.com
Use this site to find information related to a variety of clinical trials,
as well as new drug therapies recently approved by the FDA. CenterWatch
also offers a patient notification service in which they will email you
when a new clinical trial in your area of interest is submitted to them,
or when the FDA approves new drugs that might fit your profile. Use this
site as an adjunct to the federal government site, above.
CancerNet: Clinical Trials Search
http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/trialsrch.shtml
Got cancer? Search for a clinical trial on this National Cancer Institute
database. Query by cancer type, treatment type, clinical trial phase,
and, most important, by geographic location. Get contract information
for the nation's experts in your type of cancer. Call them up and ask
them what to do. |