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Useful Websites

  • Medline Plus
    Medline Plus is a comprehensive source of health information designed to help answer consumer health questions. It brings together up-to-date information from several government agencies devoted to health care and health research. Run by the National Library of Medicine, this site gives you access to Medline, which has publications and summaries from all major medical journals published in the English language.

  • Health Finder
    Health Finder is run by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is an on-line health library that looks at treatments for hundreds of different health conditions.

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
    This website is run by the federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (often known as "the CDC"). It has an enormous amount of health information and practical health advice.

  • Agency for Health Care Quality and Research (AHRQ)
    This federal agency focuses on medical research to help improve safety and quality of health care. The consumer part of this website has detailed and practical guides to help you get quality care. Here are a few of the resources at this website:

  • Government websites that feature quality comparisons
    You can use these websites to compare the quality of care within a state, county, city, or zip code:

  • Health Care Report Card Compendium
    The Report Card Compendium is a searchable directory of over 200 reports of comparative information on the quality of health plans, hospitals, medical groups, individual physicians, nursing homes, and other providers of care.

  • National Institute of Aging
    This website offers numerous informative publications and consumer guides. Although the information on this website is oriented toward older adults, it discusses health problems that often start at much earlier ages.

  • Portion Distortion Quiz
    This quiz is on the website of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. It shows how portion sizes of some common foods have grown over the years.

  • Mayo Clinic Health
    This website by the Mayo Clinic has a wide variety of health information. You can use this website to look up a disease or health condition and then find out how the disease is treated and what to expect. This website also has a planner for healthy living.

  • Boston Children's Hospital
    This website has information about how to treat medical conditions that are common in children. It covers how to talk to children about their illness, gives health tips from experts, and tells what children might expect when they go to the hospital.

  • AARP
    This website has health information from AARP experts and other sources and provides information about medical conditions, tests, and treatments. One section of this website is about prescription drugs and includes tips on using medications wisely.

  • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
    This website gives reader-friendly information on many health topics, medical conditions, and medications and includes dozens of brochures that you can download and print.

  • Medical Library Association
    A User's Guide to Finding and Evaluating Health Information on the Web will help you figure out whether a website has reliable information or not. It also has the librarians' "top ten" list of health information websites for consumers.

  • Websites with information on medication safety

  • American College of Surgeons
    This website includes patient information on a variety of topics related to surgery.

  • The Joint Commission
    This website includes the Speak Up program, with resources to help patients become better informed and more involved in their own health care.

  • US Cochrane Center Evidence-Based Healthcare Resources
    The Cochrane Collaboration is an international non-profit organization that produces systematic reviews of healthcare interventions. This website provides a list of resources and articles on evidence-based medicine.

  • California Hospital Compare
    Quality information (quality of care, patient satisfaction, safety measures) for California hospitals.

  • California Office of the Patient Advocate
    Quality information for health plans, doctors and medical groups, hospitals, and long-term care facilities

  • California Nursing Home Search
    Quality information on long-term care facilities from the California HealthCare Foundation

  • Alzheimer's Association
    The Alzheimer's Association is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to finding prevention methods, treatments and an eventual cure for Alzheimer's

  • American Cancer Society
    The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service.

  • American Heart Association
    The American Heart Association is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is: "Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke."

  • American Pain Foundation
    The foundation raises public awareness, provides practical information, promotes research, and advocates to remove barriers and increase access to effective pain management.

  • American Stroke Association
    The American Stroke Association's goal is to reduce stroke and risk by 25 percent by 2010. The site contains helpful links and useful stroke-related information

  • Autism Society of America
    ASA is dedicated to increasing public awareness about autism and the day-to-day issues faced by individuals with autism, their families and the professionals with whom they interact.

  • The American Diabetes Association
    The American Diabetes Association is the nation's leading 501(C)3 nonprofit health organization providing diabetes research, information and advocacy.

  • Epilepsy Foundation
    The Epilepsy Foundation is the national voluntary agency solely dedicated to the welfare of the 3 million people with epilepsy in the U.S. and their families

  • National Multiple Sclerosis Society
    The MS Society funds MS research, provides services to people with MS, and offers professional education and advocacy efforts for Multiple Sclerosis patients.