Rural Health: Databases and Resources

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.

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.

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.

Database in biomedicine which also excels in its coverage of pharmaceutical research.

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.

PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's premier bibliographic database that contains references to journal articles in the life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.

Provides current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.

Lt. Governor Sheila Simon chairs the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council (GRAC) which is tasked with improving delivery of state services to rural Illinois and expanding opportunities and enhancing the quality of life for rural residents.

This project provides educational ‘pipeline’ programs that will address the development and retention of the state’s health workforce using the resources of the partnership with the intent to improve health care for the underserved through health professions education, health careers development, and community and public health promotion activities.

The Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN) is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation established in 2003 for the purposes of sharing resources, education, promoting operational efficiencies, and improving health care services for member critical access hospitals and their rural communities.

The Mission of the Illinois Farm Bureau is to improve the economic well-being of agriculture and enrich the quality of farm family life.

The Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA) builds the capacity of community leaders and policymakers by providing technical support, applied research, policy evaluation, and training across the state. IIRA is a clearinghouse for information on rural issues, coordinates rural research, and works with state agencies on issues of importance to rural communities.

The NCRHP’s mission is to promote the health of rural communities through partnerships in education, service, research and policy.

The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety strives to enhance the health and safety of all children exposed to hazards associated with agricultural work and rural environments.

The National Farm Medicine Center has focused on evolving issues in agricultural health and safety encompassing behavioral, laboratory and clinical research.

The Centers for Agricultural Disease and Injury Research, Education, and Prevention represent a major NIOSH effort to protect the health and safety of agricultural workers and their families. The NIOSH Agricultural Centers were established as part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) / NIOSH Agricultural Health and Safety Initiative in 1990. The Centers were established by cooperative agreement to conduct research, education, and prevention projects to address the nation’s pressing agricultural health and safety problems. Geographically, the Centers are distributed throughout the nation to be responsive to the agricultural health and safety issues unique to the different regions.

Includes rural health news; data, tools, statistics; grants, funding, fellowships; meetings, conferences, webinars; guidelines, journals, other publications, key organizations, programs

A product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Rural Initiative, the Rural Assistance Center (RAC) was established in December 2002 as a rural health and human services "information portal." RAC helps rural communities and other rural stakeholders access the full range of available programs, funding, and research that can enable them to provide quality health and human services to rural residents.

This site provides access to publications and projects funded through the federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) as part of the Rural Health Research Centers and Analysis Initiatives grant program.

Rural Partners is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1989 and is committed to coordinate private/public leadership for community and economic development throughout rural Illinois.