Finding Health Information on the Web

Introduction

Tom Peters compiled this document. He is a librarian, not a healthcare professional. Please send additions, corrections, comments, and questions to tpeters@tapinformation.com.

Peg Burnette, a librarian at the Peoria campus library of the University of Illinois at Chicago Library of the Health Sciences created the Project HEALTHY guides finding health information online, and they have been consulted in compiling this overview.

Sources of online health information for the general public include:

Federal, state, and local governmental agencies (.gov)

Not-for-profit organizations (.org)

Universities and teaching and research hospitals (.edu)

For-profit organizations (.com)

Evaluating the Health Information You Find

The HealthLinks online resource created and maintained by the University of Washington has created a useful checklist (http://healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/finding_healthinfo.html) of criteria for evaluating consumer health information found online.

Authority

Accuracy

Objectivity

Coverage

Currency

Design and Presentation

HON Code of Conduct for Medical and Health Web Sites

http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html

Developed by the Health on the Net Foundation.

Finding General Consumer Health Information Online

General Web Search Engines

MedlinePlus

http://medlineplus.gov/

Over 700 health topics are listed in a classified arrangement as well as alphabetically. This massive online resource from the U.S. National Library of Medicine also contains information about drugs and nutritional supplements, an encyclopedia, a dictionary, health news, directories of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals, and links to other useful online resources.

SeniorHealth

http://nihseniorhealth.gov/

A project of the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine, which are both part of the National Institutes of Health. This website has several features to increase its accessibility, including the ability to enlarge the text size, to increase the contrast, and to have the information read out loud via a computerized voice.

Womenshealth.gov

http://www.4woman.gov/

HealthWeb

http://healthweb.org/

healthfinder

http://www.healthfinder.gov/

A service of the National Health Information Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

NOAH: New York Online Access to Health

www.noah-health.org/

One of the better known and used state-based online health information services.

FamilyDoctor

http://familydoctor.org/

Created and maintained by the American Academy of Family Physicians

WebMD

http://www.webmd.com/

A for-profit provider of health-related information and services. Some of their information can be accessed for no charge, and other information and information-services are sold on a subscription basis.