Medical Online InformationDrugs.com

Drugs.com claims to provide "free, accurate and independent advice on more than 24,000 prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines & natural products."

The Drugs.com website is owned and operated by the Drugsite Trust. The Drugsite Trust is a privately held Trust administered by two New Zealand Pharmacists. The Drugs.com website is hosted in a data center located in Virginia, USA.

Find below links to the Drugs.com Hompepage and a Sample page related to the drug Naproxern.

Links:
1. Home Page [Drugs.com]
2. Sample: Naproxen

Medical Onlined Information:Your Total Health: iVillage

Your Total Health is a service of NBC universal and the iVillage network.

Given that the iVillage network is a destination intended primarilly for women, with an active women's community, horoscopes, health and pregnancy information, message boards, and blogs. Your Total Health has a special interest in issues related to women's health.

In addition to regular features on: Staying Healthy, Women & Family, and, Diet and Fitness, they have links to their 'top conditions' which include:Allergy & Asthma, Alzheimer’s Disease, Anxiety, Arthritis, Blood Pressure, and Breast Cancer,

They also a Quizzes & Self Test feature at the bottom of their Home Page where you can test your knowledge.

Finf beow links to the Home Page and a Sample condition 'Murphy's Sign'

Links:
1. Homepage [yourtotalhealth.com]
2. Sample: Murphy's Sign

Medical Information Online:Lab Test Onlin

Lab Tests Online UK has been designed to: ''help patients better understand the many clinical lab tests that are part of routine care as well as diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of conditions and diseases'.

Their Features Page describes what you can find on the site, and how it can benefit patients. The site is the product of a collaboration of professional societies representing the lab community. They launched the site at a time when health care consumers were being asked to assume more responsibility for their care.

Knowing more about lab tests and the issues surrounding testing, they belived, is: ''an important step in this direction and hoped that patients would find this site a help in taking that step.''

Find below links to the Home Page for the site and a Sample page related to Full Blood Counts.

Links:
1. Home Page [labtestsonline.org.uk]
2. Sample: Full Blood Counts

Medical Onlinene Information:e-Medicine

eMedicine claims to be: ''... the most authoritative and accessible point of care medical reference available to physicians and other health care professionals on the Internet''

The evidence-based content, updated regularly by more than 8,000 attributed physician or health care provider authors and editors, provides the latest practice guidelines in 38 clinical areas. The eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base contains articles on over 6,500 diseases and medical topics, and is richly illustrated with some 28,000 multimedia files.

New eMedicine articles, they claim: ''... undergo several levels of physician peer review plus an additional review by a PharmD prior to publication. Sources for subsequent revisions of articles include the author, a physician or PharmD member of the editorial board, user-driven feedback, and systematically reviewed medical literature''.

Links:
1. Home Page [emedicine.medscape.com]
2. Sample: Temporal arteritis

Medical Online Information: Patient UK

Patient UK was first launched in 1997 by PiP (Patient Information Publications). It started as a directory of UK websites which provided information of health, disease and related issues.

In December 2002, Patient UK was re-launched as a joint venture between PiP and EMIS (Egton Medical Information Systems). For the re-launch Patient UK was extensively revised and considerably more content was been added.

Their aim is: ''...to be a reliable and comprehensive source of health and disease information, mainly aimed at the UK general public, but of interest to all.''

Please find below links to: the Home Page for the site; and a 'Sample page' related to: Space Occupying Lesions.

Links:
1. Home Page [Patient UK]
2. Sample: Space Occupying Lesions

Medical Online Information:Net Doctor

NetDoctor.co.uk is a collaboration between 'committed' doctors, health care professionals, information specialists and patients who believe that ''medical practice should be based on quality-assessed information and, wherever possible, on the basis of the principles of evidence-based medicine.''

Over 250 of the UK's and Europe's leading doctors and health professionals write, edit and update the contents of NetDoctor.co.uk. In addition to creating written content for the patient these same health professionals respond to users questions and concerns regarding general health concerns.

The site ''About Us'' page notes that: ''Our editorial independence and reliance on professional advice is our single most important asset. There is a clear distinction between the editorial and business staff. As a matter of policy our doctors, writers and editors are not allowed to be influenced or answerable to our sponsors or advertisers. We follow the same standards of practice as the leading medical journals.''

Please find below links to: Net Doctor's home page; the indexes for 'Diseases & Conditions' and 'Examinations & Tests'

Links:
1. Net Doctor [netdoctor.co.uk]
2. Index: Diseases & Conditions
3. Index: Examinations & Test
4. Sample: Cystoscopy
5. Sample: Dementia

Medical Online InformationBetter Health

Better Health is an online medical information site produced by the Department of Health of the Australia State Government - Victoria [the city of Melbourne is in Victoria]

The website was founded in 1999 by the Victorian Government, Australia as a consumer health information website for the Victorian community. It is now Australia's most popular health and medical website.

The site’s aim has always been to provide free health and medical information in an easy to understand format and language.

Thanks to the support of Better Health Channel visitors, partners and staff, what started as a modest website of around 100 facts sheets has now become a large repository of over 1,770 facts sheets, hundreds of healthy recipes, interactive features and calculators, directories and more.

Find below links to: the home page of the site; the Fact Sheets page which has links to the various categories of 'Fact Sheets' including 'Diseases & Conditions' and 'Treatments'; Patients information; and two sample pages related to Lapartomy & Arthritis. Check it out. You might find it uselful for your oral exam. More site to come in the next couple of days.

Links:
1. Better Health [vic.gov.au]
2. Fact Sheets [Better Health]
3. Patient Information [Better Health]
4. Sample 1: Laparotomy
5. Sample 2: Athritis

Medical Online Information:MEDtropolis

Launched in 1996, the award-winning MEDtropolis aims ‘’to inform, educate and entertain kids and adults in the areas of healthcare and healthy living’’.

They have literally millions of pages of trusted healthcare information.Another aim of MEDtropolis is to help Americans locate ‘quality’ healthcare facilities across the nation.

Their most popular feature is the Virtual Body [information about which I posted earlier today] . They have a link to the Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary here and health Self-Assessment Tools as well.

Find below links to the site and a link to their list of links to heart related medical procedures which you might find useful in preparing for your oral exam

Links:
1. Home Page [MEDtropolis.com]
2. Heart-Related Medical Procedures [MEDTropolis.com]

Medical On-Line Information:Introduction

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting links to a number of medical on-line information sites. These are sites that are aimed at providing information for members of the general public about medical problems they might be facing; medical procedures and test they might be undergoing; and, hints abouty how to live longer and healthier lives.

Apart from providing you an insight to what patients may know about their real or imagined conditioned, such sites also often provide clear straightforward information about a wide range of medical issues.

As always however, it is always wise to check who runs these websites. While many are set up by Government bodies and/or Doctors associations, some are set up by drug companies and other interests groups pushing particular types of solutions for or, perspectives on medical problems.

It is worthwhile noting also, that websites of this kind might be helpful to you in preparing your final oral exam!!