MedlinePlus

MedlinePlus has come a long way since its launch a decade ago. With over 12 million visitors each month from 200 countries, the site is nearing 1 billion page views per year. The National Library of Medicine unveiled the site in 1998 with 22 health topics, and today www.medlineplus.gov boasts over 770 health topics—in English and Spanish. The most popular health topics are also available in 40 other languages. In addition to the health topics, MedlinePlus provides free information on drugs and supplements, the latest news, a medical dictionary, an extensive encyclopedia, surgery videos, interactive educational material, and links to other helpful sites to locate clinical trials, understand genetic conditions, and find information specifically for older Americans. The health information on MedlinePlus is professionally selected from reliable sources including the National Institutes of Health, government organizations, medical associations, and more than one thousand other health organizations such as the Mayo Clinic and the Harvard School of Public Health. Health topics are updated at least every six months to provide consumers with the most current health information available. Here are two new additions to the MedlinePlus site:

MedlinePlus has a new tutorial (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/medicalwords/) on understanding medical words or terminology. Sometimes the terms we use to describe an illness or condition do not match those of a doctor. For example, a “heart attack” to a doctor means there is damage to the heart muscle, while a consumer might interpret it to mean the heart isn’t beating. You'll also learn how to make sense of medical terms by breaking the term into parts and examining the word roots. For instance, the term colostomy (creating an opening in the colon) looks like this when broken up: colo=colon, +ostomy=opening of. The tutorial takes around 15-20 minutes to complete, including a few short quizzes.

MedlinePlus has partnered with DSHI Systems to bring FreeMD (www.freemd.com), a symptom checker, to health consumers. A virtual doctor conducts and interview, evaluates symptoms and offers expert advice from the convenience of your computer. The site can analyze over 3,000 symptoms and injuries, providing information on possible symptom causes and determining when and where to seek care. FreeMD was designed to not only help consumers triage personal symptoms, but also to provide a tool for communicating with their doctor. The system generates a personal web page that can be shared with health care staff. DSHI is a physician-led medical technology company, and the evidence-based content on FreeMD.com is written and maintained by physicians. It is independently funded by virtual and real life emergency room physician, Dr. Stephen Schueler, and is advertising-free. MedlinePlus links to 150 FreeMD entries, and/or you can link directly to the FreeMD site. Use of the site is for information purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for evaluation and treatment by a physician.

(from Dana Abbey, MLS - Consumer Health Coordinator at the University of Colorado Denver-Health Sciences Library)

For other medical related information, check out the Health & Medicine links on our website under Research > Web Research Links > Nonlegal > Health & Medicine.