Health Resources - Librarian Recommended Websites
Local Resources
Ask-a-Nurse at the Shawnee Mission Medical Center
Is it after hours and your own doctor is not available? Maybe you have questions about a loved one's illness. Ask-a-Nurse is not a substitute for your own doctor's advice, but the service may be able to answer some of your health-related questions. You can call or e-mail with your question.
Doctors and Hospitals Information
American Hospital Association Consumer Health Care Information
Lots of information here about understanding the health care system, choosing a health care provider and making decisions about your health care.
American Medical Association
This site is probably most useful for its Doctor Finder which will allow you to search for a physician by location and/or medical specialty.
Hospital Compare
This service was designed to provide hospital quality of care information to the public in a consistent, unified way. The web site provides information on how well the hospitals in your area care for all their adult patients with certain medical conditions.
Drug Information
MEDLINEplus
MEDLINEplus has a good selection on drug information.
RxList: The Internet Drug Index
A good online version of a pill book. This web site includes everything from how a drug should be used to side effects. A very thorough source of drug information.
General
Medline Plus
If you're looking for health information on the web, this site should be your first stop. MEDLINEplus is the National Library of Medicine's web site for consumer health information and is composed of a selective list of authoritative health information sources from The National Institute of Health and other organizations. The core of MEDLINEplus is the health topics, but the site also has drug information, current health news, dictionaries, directories, and a list of other resources.
Quack Watch
A nonprofit organization with the latest on medical scams and frauds.
WebMD
This site is full of quality medical information compiled by medical professionals. There are a fair number of advertisements, so be aware of the type of link you are clicking.
National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine
Learn what complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is and how to make informed decisions about CAM. Find out about different complementary treatments or the benefits of various treatments for certain diseases.
Healthfinder
Healthfinder is a gateway to selected reliable consumer health and human services information. Healthfinder was developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and can lead you to numerous organizations, databases, web sites, and other resources which produce reliable information for the public.
MedHunt
MedHunt is a service of the Health on the Net Foundation. Search results will include web sites subscribing to the HONcode Principles as well as other web sites. The Health on the Net Foundation established the HONcode to help standardize the reliability and credibility of health information on the web and give you an indication of the quality of the information on a web site. See the HON web site for a full description of the code.
Specific Conditions
American Arthritis Association
Online Library Databases
Library databases may be accessed with your library card number and PIN. Most of these databases may be accessed from home; however, some are only available within the library.
Health and Wellness Resource Center (Gale)
Access to medical, health, and wellness information through the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, and full-text articles from journals, pamphlets and a variety of medical sources. Additionally Internet resources have been selected. Library and home use.
ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Collection
This database provides full-text information from leading nursing and related publications. It is designed to meet the needs of researchers, as well as students enrolled in nursing programs at academic institutions. Library and home use.
Virtual Reference Library
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. These reference materials once were accessible only in the library, but now you can access them online from the library or remotely 24/7. Because each library creates its own eBook collection, the content you see may vary if you use the database at different libraries (your school, your public library, or your office). Library and home use.