Great Places to Start
Canada Health Portal (CHP) - a collaborative project involving several departments and agencies within the Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments, the CHP provides single-window access to health-related electronic information and services.
Canadian Health Network (CHN): Health Information You can Trust - a national, bilingual health information service providing links to more than 700 authoritative Canadian health information providers.
Health Canada - It's Your Health
Other Canadian Resources
- Canadian Women's Health Network (CWHN)
- Sympatico Health - MediResource
- P.O.W.E.R. Surfers (Patients Online for Well-being, Education & Research) - provides links to annotated and authoritative consumer health sites.
- Cancercare Ontario
- Health Care Information Resources - the award-winning web site for consumers and professionals by Tom Flemming, Librarian, McMaster University.
- Medbroadcast.com
- Family Resource Library - maintained by Montreal Children's Hospital
U.S. Sites
The Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of the Medical Library Association (MLA) evaluates web sites based on the following criteria: credibility, sponsorships/authorship, content, audience, currency, disclosure, purpose, links, design, interactivity and disclaimers.
They have found the following web sites particularly useful (sites are listed in alphabetical, NOT ranked, order):
- Cancer.gov (National Cancer Institute)
- Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
- familydoctor.org
- healthfinder
- HIV Insite
- Kidshealth
- Mayo Clinic
- MEDEM: an information partnership of medical societies
- MEDLINE Plus
- NOAH: New York Online Access to Health
Other Useful Sites:
- Clinical Trials.gov - developed by the National Institutes of Health (U.S.), the site provides current information about clinical trials and research studies
- MedWeb: Consumer Health - provides exhaustive listings of consumer health related sites. Produced by Emory University.
- FirstFind.info Health - provides links to excellent easy to use and understand health related web sites. An initiative of the Westchester Library System, NY.
- Household Products Database - recently released by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), this database links over 4,000 consumer brand name products to information on their health effects and allows scientists and consumers to research products based on their chemical ingredients.
- InteliHEALTH - features Harvard Medical Schools Consumer Health Information. Produced by Johns Hopkins University and Aetna InteliHEALTH
- Lab Tests Online - a public resource on clinical lab tests which enables consumers to better understand the many clinical lab tests that are part of routine care as well as diagnosis and treatment. Results may be expressed in American lab values.
- Merck Manual : 2nd Home edition. By Mark H. Beers, Editor in Chief. 2003 - 2004. Merck & Co., Inc.
- NIHSeniorHealth.gov - a 'talking' web site with format and topics tailored to the needs of older people.
- Vitamins and Nutrition Center - provides accurate information on vitamins and nutrition, research on vitamins and the different effects of vitamin deficiency.
Below is a list of health information portals that are good places to start when looking for information about a disease or condition.
AAP Public Education Brochures - helpful information for parents with families from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
AMA Health Information - from the American Medical Association.
CHID - Combined Health Information Database - is produced by health-related agencies of the U.S. federal government.
Consumer.gov - Consumer information from the US. government.
Discoveryhealth.com - news, diseases and conditions, health information for men, women, kids, and seniors.
Familydoctor.org - from the American Academy of Family Practitioners is a site with over 200 patient education handouts originally published in American Family Physician.
Health AtoZ - health and medical search engine.
HealthAnswers - search engine, news, health topics.
HealthCentral - general-interest health site with special reports by Dr. Dean Edell.
Health-Center - choose health topic center to access resources including bulletin boards.
HealthFinder - a gateway to selected consumer health and human services provided by the federal government.
Health Information for Patients - from the American Academy of Family Practitioners.
Health Oasis - from the Mayo Clinic.
HealthScout - reliable source of health information for consumers; helps separate fact from fictitious web sites.
HealthWeb - Consumer Health - is a collaborative project of participating Midwestern health sciences libraries.
Internet Public Library - Health & Medicine - quality online reference resources selected by librarians and supported by the University of Michigan School of Information.
JAMA Patient Page - health topics for patients based on research articles in JAMAMed Help International - an online source of consumer-oriented information since 1994.
MediConsult - peer-reviewed educational materials, support groups, expert advice.
MedicineNet - produced by a network of doctors to provide up-to-date health information to the public.
Medicine Online - cancer information, news, forums, and meeting reports.
Michigan Electronic Library - Health Information Resources - an online information system supported by the University of Michigan and the Access Michigan project.
Net Wellness - consumer health information service developed by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University and Ohio State University.
NIH - Consumer Health - is a collection of most requested NIH publications.
OnHealth - consumer-friendly information from respected sources on 250 or more health conditions.
Patient Educational Brochures - from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
PatientINFORM.org - offers patients and their caregivers the latest quality-screened medical research news relating to diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
WebMD - health topics from A-Z, ask the experts, health news for consumers and member services.
Last updated on: August 23, 2006