Online Medical Advice Web sites

Medical Advice Online

Evelyn Smith

Masters of Science, University of North Texas (2012)

Evidence- based Medicine

“Evidence-based medicine is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research.”

Sackett, D. L et al. 1996. Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ, 312: 71–2.  Retrieved from http://www.bmj.com/content/312/7023/71

The Evidence Pyramid

Systematic reviews exhibit the highest level of medical research, although there are fewer of them.  As the viewer moves up the evidence pyramid, sources are fewer, but the scientific scrutiny is greater.

http://libguides.umhb.edu/content.php?pid=49881&sid=390736

Database Searching Techniques

To narrow searches on Web sites like PubMed use AND to restrict a search, OR to widen it, and NOT to exclude and limit.  Boolean searches, such as those used on PubMed and similar Websites, require the searcher to type these operators in capital letters.  When entering searches, use a dash between words; for example, inflammatory-breast-cancer, or surround them with quotation marks; for instance, “inflammatory breast cancer”. Users can also create complete sources by using parentheses.  An example of this nesting technique would be "rheumatoid arthritis" AND (exercise OR diet).  PubMed also allows users to set filters limiting a search for its date range, language, document type, age groups, and title of article.

Evidence-based Medical Sources

Evidence-Based Medicine. (2013). BMJ.  Retrieved from http://ebm.bmj.com/

EBM scans 100 medical journals and around 50,000 articles yearly to identify the most important and timely articles.  This repository includes may open access sources.

PubMed.gov. (2013).  U.S. National Library of Medicine.  National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

PubMed gives users access to full text articles, journals in NCBI databases, clinical trials, and  medical subject headings (MeSH).

Web Sites Offering Vetted Medical Advice

 Discern. (1999).  Retrieved from http://www.discern.org.uk/quick_reference_guide.php

British Web site provides a reference guide for judging consumer health information.

Healthline. (2013).  Healthline Solutions, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/

Users can look up facts on symptoms, drugs, and treatment as well as to connect to health experts and blogs and browse feature articles.

Just Ask Medical. (2013). Retrieved from http://justaskmedical.com/

Web site allows users to ask a medical question via e-mail, create a free account, and receive an e-mailed written response from a physician within 24 hours.

Mayo Clinic. (2013). Mayo Foundation.  Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.com/

The Mayo Clinic allows the general public to find health information, check symptoms, find out about drugs and supplements, tests and procedures and to look up blogs written by experts as well as explore healthy living options.  They can also find clinical trials.

Medlineplus.gov. (2013).  U. S. Library of Medicine.  National Institutes of Heath.  Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

Medlineplus.gov takes users to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.  Users can learn about health topics, drugs and supplement, and access videos and “cool tools”.  They can also access information specific to a particular age level or gender,  view senior clinical trials, and consult a medical dictionary.

Medline Plus Easy-to-Read. (2013, November 18). U.S. Library of Medicine.  National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from http://www.nih.gov/medlineplus/all-easytoread.html

Link takes uses to an easy-to-read format covering health topics, drugs and supplements, and "cool tools"--interactive tutorials, surger videos, games, calculators and quizzes.

Resources for health consumers. (2013). Medical Library Association.  Retrieved from http://mlanet.org/resources/consumr_index.html#basic

Sponsored by the Medical Library Associate,  this Website furnishes information about a lot of medical topics, including 

• The Affordable Care Act (“Obama Care”),

• Medspeak, for deciphering a physician’s diagnosis or prognosis in both English and Spanish,

• Where consumers can find a medical librarian,

• how to find out about local hospitals.

Web MD Symptom Checker.  (2011).  WebMD, LLC.  Retrieved from http://symptoms.webmd.com/#introView

The symptom checker allows users to individualize the virtual patient by age and gender.

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Ask Me 3

Every patient should ask his or her doctor 

these three questions:

1. What is my main problem?
2. What do I need to do?
3. Why is it important for me to do this?

Ask Me 3. (2013). National Patient Safety Foundation.  Retrieved from http://www.npsf.org/for-healthcare-professionals/programs/ask-me-3/

Even More Health Questions to Ask 

Before Surgery or Treatment

Health literacy and patient safety: Help patients understand. (2010, August 27). AMA Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtTZ_vxjyA\\

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Reading & Understanding 

Medicine Labels:

Understand medicine labels.  (2013).  Reading.  TV411.  Education Development Center, Inc.  (3:39 minutes). Retrieved from http://www.tv411.org/reading/understanding-what-you-read/video-medicine-labels

Video helps consumers learn how to read medicine labels, ensuring that they give their children (or themselves) just the right amount of medicine.

Reading medicine labels. (2013).  Reading.  TV411.  Education Developemnt Center.  Retrieved from http://www.tv411.org/reading/understanding-what-you-read/reading-medicine-labels

Tutorial gives practice in reading medicine labels for active ingredients and correct doses of medicine.  It also focuses on studying terms that describe symptoms, dosages, and types of cold and flu. 

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 Window Shopping 

for an Affordable Healthcare Policy?

TheHealthSherpa.com.  (2013, November).  Retrieved from http://www.thehealthsherpa.com/

Anyone wanting to find out about health insurance policy options available through the United States government's Affordable Healthcare insurance  (a.k.a. the politically-incorrect, but often used term "Obama Care"), can enter his or her zip code in the  the Health Sherpa search box to determine which government-approved insurance policies are available without having to divulge personal information on this privately-owned Web site.  The user then enters his or her age and whether he or she smokes.  The Health Sherpa also helps calculate the consumer's yearly Adjusted Gross Income to determine if he or she is eligible for a subsidy.  

Armed with all this information, the prospective health insurance client can then either go directly to the health insurance company that sells the health insurance plan he or she has decided to purchase or else go directly to Affordable Healthcare official US government Website: https://www.healthcare.gov/

Johnson, Avery. 2013, December 8).  HeathCare.gov tries to reboot.  Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304096104579240302907830812

The official federal health-care coverage Website, HealthCare.gov now offers Americans without health insurance a window-shopping feature that allows them to view information about plans available to consumers without applying or logging onto the Website (Johnson, 2013, December 8, para. 4). The Obama Administration has also extended the deadline to sign up for 2014 health insurance coverage from December 15th to December 23, but they will still need to pay their first premium in December 2013 (Johnson, 2013, December 8, para. 6).  However, to avoid incurring the federal tax penalty for not having any health insurance, they will have until March 31, 2014 (Johnson, 2013, December 8, para. 7).  Applicants can also obtain health insurance from a local insurance broker or directly from an insurer that operates in their state (Johnson, 2013, December 8, para. 9).

Healthcare.gov. (2013). U. S. Department of Health & Human Services.  Retrieved from http://www.healthcare.gov

Consumers can find out detailed information on how to find and use insurance links to provider comparisons if they provide personal information on the official Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Website.  At the bottom, left-side of the homepage there is a “Plain Writing” link.  They can then choose to enroll via this Website or contact a private insurer.

For independent, non-biased Analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act go to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Website:

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (2013). Health reform. Retrieved from http://kff.org/health-reform/

This consumer-friendly Website provides up-to-date information on the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including health care stats, state estimates available for health credits, a health insurance subsidy calculator, and different perspectives on the government health-care program.

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How to Find a

Reliable Health Website

Finding and evaluating online resources on complimentary health approaches.  (2013, August 22).  National Center for Complimentary & Alternative Health Medicine.  US Department of Health & Human Services.  National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/webresources

The NIH suggests that web surfers ask five important questions when determining if a health Website is reliable:

1. Who runs the Website? Can you trust them?
2. What does the site say? Do the claims seem too good to be true?
3. When was the information reviewed? Is it up-to-date?
4. Where did the information come from? Is it based on scientific research?
5. Why does the site exist? Is it selling something?

(Finding & evaluating online resources, 2013, para. 4)

The NCCAM Web page also offers a bibliography of articles that will help guide the reader to safe and reliable health Web pages.

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Available Subscription-based Sources

Most metropolitan public libraries give their virtual patrons access to subscription-based medical information; for example, the Waco McLennan County Library gives users access to Health Source: Consumer Education, Medline Plus, Alt Healthwatch, Health Reference Center Academic, Healthsource: Nursing/Academic, Medic Latina, Natural and Alternative Treatments, and Psychology and Behavioral Collection databases.

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Medical Resources for seniors (& everyone else)

 

See: http://evelynelainesmith.blogspot.com/2013/11/suggestions-for-living-long-healthy-life.html

A list of hyperlinks on medical problems common to older patients
follows the main article.

Caphis. (2013, September).  2013 CAPHIS Top 100 List, pp.1-15.  Retrieved from http://caphis.mlanet.org/consumer/top100all.pdf

Website lists the top 100 medical websites, organized by category:

• General health
• Women’s health
• Men’s health
• Parenting & kids
• Senior health
• Specific health
• For health professionals
• Drug information resources
• Complementary & alternative
• Other useful health sites

The user can search by category or perform a custom search.  A short summary follows the URL link for each website. 

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Maura Sostack, an instructor for the American Library Association’s Health Information 101 course, furnished through the auspices of the Reference and User Service Association (RUSA), provided much of the information and inspiration for this Webpage.   –Evelyn Smith

The articles reviewed and the links furnished on this Web page represent the opinions of their authors, so they complement—not substitute—for a physician’s advice.