Subject and Course Guides: Community Medicine Residents: Consumer Health Databases & Resources

Health Information on the Web

Resources for finding and evaluating health information on the Web:

Medical Library Association (MLA) Information for Patients and Caregivers
This guide to evaluating online health information is supported by the MLA - the organization of librarians whose primary purpose is promoting quality information for improved health.
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This guide outlines the collective wisdom of medical librarians who surf the web every day to discover quality information in support of clinical and scientific decision making by doctors, scientists, and other health practitioners responsible for the nation's health. This guide is supported by the Medical Library Association (MLA), the library organization whose primary purpose is promoting quality information for improved health and whose members were the first to realize that not all health information on the web is credible, timely, or safe.
National Library of Medicine (NLM) Guide
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NLM librarians can't answer questions about individual medical cases or offer medical advice, because we are not doctors, nurses, or pharmacists. You can use this guide to help find health information resources.
Evaluating Internet Health Information
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This is a link to a tutorial that teaches you how to evaluate the health information that you find on the Web. It is about 16 minutes long.

More Databases

Can't find what you're looking for?

Check the Database A-Z list.

Consumer Health Databases

CancerNet
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You will find valuable cancer-related information of all kinds. For the general public, patients, and health professionals, you will find consumer-oriented information on a wide range of topics as well as comprehensive descriptions of our research programs and clinical trials.
Clinical Trials
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ClinicalTrials.gov is a registry of federally and privately supported clinical trials conducted in the United States and around the world. ClinicalTrials.gov gives you information about a trial's purpose, who may participate, locations, and phone numbers for more details. This information should be used in conjunction with advice from health care professionals.

Consumer Health Complete - EBSCOhost
Consumer-oriented coverage of all areas of health and wellness from mainstream medicine to complementary, holistic and integrated medicine.
Consumer Health Complete is designed to support patients' information needs and foster an overall understanding of health-related topics. It includes the Clinical Reference System and the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which provides access to up-to-date, concise and clinically relevant drug monographs. The database is updated on a weekly basis.

Genetics Home Reference
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Genetics Home Reference provides consumer-friendly information about the effects of genetic variations on human health.
Consumer Product Information Database
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This database links over 23,000 consumer brands to health effects from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provided by manufacturers and allows scientists and consumers to research products based on chemical ingredients.
MedlinePlus
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MEDLINEPlus provides health professionals and consumers information that is authoritative and up to date. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and dictionaries, health information in Spanish.

Consumer Health Information Resources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
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CDC.gov provides users with credible, reliable health information on Data and Statistics, Diseases and Conditions, Emergencies and Disasters, Environmental Health, Healthy Living, Injury, Violence and Safety, Life Stages and Populations, Travelers' Health, Workplace Safety and Health and more. CDC.gov provides health and safety information to individuals interested in health issues, Public Health Professionals, Healthcare Providers,
Researchers and Scientists, Media, Businesses, Students and Educators.
Health.gov
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Portal for health related resources and news from the US government.
Health Finder
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This is a government Web site where you will find information and tools to help you and those you care about stay healthy. When making decisions about your health, it’s important to know where to go to get the latest, most reliable information. Healthfinder.gov has resources on a wide range of health topics selected from over 1,600 government and non-profit organizations to bring you the best, most reliable health information on the Internet.
Healthline
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Healthline's medical expertise and technical product portfolio is derived from a consumer healthcare taxonomy that was developed in conjunction with physicians and is maintained today by a team of medical informatics specialists. The taxonomy (or "classification")
consists of a terminology database of over one million medical terms and consumer-friendly synonyms, as well as 250,000 medical concepts that include diseases, conditions, causes, symptoms, diagnoses, treatments and other medically relevant attributes.
Mayo Clinic
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Our mission is to empower people to manage their health. We accomplish this by providing useful and up-to-date information and tools that reflect the expertise and standard of excellence of Mayo Clinic.

A team of Web professionals and medical experts working side by side produces this site. Through this unique collaboration, we give you access to the experience and knowledge of the more than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers of Mayo Clinic
NIH National Institute on Aging
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NIHSeniorHealth is an easy-to-use website features health and wellness information for older adults from the National Institutes of Health. Use the buttons at the top of each page to make the text bigger, change text color, or hear the text read aloud.
NOAH: New York Online Access to Health
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NOAH provides access to high quality consumer health information in English and Spanish. The NOAH volunteer editors do not write this information. Instead, librarians and health professionals in New York and beyond find, select, and organize full-text consumer health information that is current, relevant, accurate and unbiased.
Office of Women's Health
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The Office on Women's Health (OWH) was established in 1991 within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its Vision is to ensure that "All Women and Girls are Healthier and Have a Better Sense of Well Being." Its mission is to "provide leadership to promote health equity for women and girls through sex/gender-specific approaches." The strategy OWH uses to achieve its mission and vision is through the development of innovative programs, by educating health professionals, and motivating behavior change in consumers through the dissemination of health information.
Quackwatch
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Quackwatch, Inc., is a nonprofit corporation whose purpose is to combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct. Its primary focus is on quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere. Founded by Dr. Stephen Barrett in 1969 as the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, it was incorporated in 1970.
SALUD
Spanish health education materials.

3 Necessary Accounts for Research

1. ILLIAD - for interlibrary loans of articles that are not available as full text electronically or in print at LHS. LHS delivery is rapid and you may have your article as soon as 1-2 days!

You will need your I-Card number, which starts with 28198 or 20111 - you only need to fill out the first page - don't worry about the account information page.

2. Refworks - the citation management database can be accessed online from anywhere.

a. Sign-up at: https://www.refworks.com/refworks2/default.aspx?r=authentication::init&groupcode=RWUIllChicago

The RefWorks Group Code may be needed for when you working off campus. You will need to login with your NETID and password to get the group code.

b. Familiarize yourself with the Refwork's tutorials page at LHS http://researchguides.uic.edu/content.php?pid=74619&sid=552483

These tutorials are well worth the time and provide an introduction to the many time-saving features associated with using Refworks to manage your citations and write your papers using Cite-n-Write.

c. Next, view an introductory video on Refworks at UIC (this is the first tutorial on the guide) http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhs/resources/guides/refworks/Refworks%20Intro_demo/Refworks%20Intro_demo.htm

3. MYNCBI - PubMed's online bibliographic management system and more - use it to save collections, searches, bibliographies....

a. Sign-up at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/?back_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fbooks%2FNBK3827%2F%23pubmedhelp.PubMed_Quick_Start

b. Watch the tutorial on MYNCBI for an Overview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks46w3mNAQE

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Community Medicine Residents: Consumer Health Databases & Resources

Health Information on the Web

More Databases

Consumer Health Databases

Consumer Health Information Resources

3 Necessary Accounts for Research

BROWZINE

Richard J. Daley Library

Library of the Health Sciences, Chicago

Library of the Health Sciences, Peoria

Crawford Library of the Health Sciences, Rockford

UIC Law Library