NSCC Library: Respiratory Care Research Guide: Disease, Disorders & Conditions

Health Science Textbooks and Medical Reference Books for Disease, Disorders & Conditions Research

Current Textbooks and Reference Books will provide you with medical background information on specific diseases, disorders and conditions. Consult your program textbooks and R2 Digital library.

R2 Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Current collection of authoritative nursing, allied health and medical textbooks and reference books. Great resource for medical background information on a topic and for disease, disorders and conditions research.

Health & Medical Websites for General Medical Background Knowledge of a Disease, Disorder or Condition

In some instances, health and medical websites may be a reasonable resource for general medical background knowledge of a disease.

Sections of a site may provide:

etiology, incidence rates, pathology, signs/symptoms, prognosis, course of the disease, medical treatments, and precautions

MedlinePlus
Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus is a subject directory of authoritative websites that have been vetted by experts. Use the site to locate good institutional, organizational and association websites, to locate research reports, and to fill in gaps in information. Click on the Read More link to get a structured view of content.
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Good resource for prevention information, and national data and statistics on the range and distribution of disease.
Mayo Clinic
Good for patient care information. Includes symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention of the disease. See also Cleveland Clinic's site for patient information.
Merck Manual
Professional information source strong on prevalence / occurrence information, symptoms, diagnosis; also includes etiology / causes of disease, and detailed treatment and therapy information. Excellent Image and Video Source.
WebMD's Medscape
Medscape from WebMD offers health care professionals integrated medical information and educational tools. Free registration required.

Content Evaluation Guidelines: Criteria for Appraising Health & Medical Websites for Professional Use

You should consider these four factors when deciding whether to use information from health & medical websites as part of the care of your patients:

Intended Audience
Currency
Context
Evidence Based Documentation

See Content Evaluation Guidelines for a full listing and explanation of the criteria

Content Evaluation Guidelines Criteria for Appraising Health & Medical Websites for Appropriate Professional Use, Lateral Reading Strategy