NSCC Library: Respiratory Care: Professional Medical Websites

Skills - Evaluating Health Information

The Medical Library Association has four recommended Content Evaluation Guidelines for finding and evaluation health information on the Web:

Health and medical websites are a good resource for general medical background knowledge of a disease. Sections of a site may provide:

Merck Manual
Excellent Image and Video Source.
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Professional information source strong on prevalence / occurrence information, symptoms, diagnosis; also includes etiology / causes of disease, and detailed treatment and therapy information.
Mayo Clinic
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Good for patient care information includes symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention of the disease. See also Cleveland Clinic's site for patient information.
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
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Good resource for prevention information, and national data and statistics on the range and distribution of disease.
MedlinePlus
Click on the Read More link to get a structured view of content.
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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.
Medscape
Free registration required.
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Medscape from WebMD offers health care professionals integrated medical information and educational tools.