Searching for Medical Information

The Internet is a fount of information of all different types. It's a particularly good research tool for health-related information.

caution

As useful as these health sites are, they should not and cannot serve as substitutes for a trained medical opinion.

A number of Web sites offer detailed information about illnesses, diseases, and medicines. Many of these sites focus on preventive medicine and wellness, and almost all help you match symptoms with likely illnesses and treatments. Indeed, some of these sites provide access to the same medical databases used by most physicians without waiting for an appointment!

tip

You can also use the Web to search for a new or specialist physician in your area. Some of the best physician search sites include AMA Physician Select (www.ama-assn.org/aps/), Best Doctors (www.bestdoctors.com), DoctorDirectory.com (www.doctordirectory.com), and mydoctor.com (www.mydoctor.com).

The top medical sites on the Web include

• healthAtoZ.com (www.healthatoz.com)

• kidsDoctor (www.kidsdoctor.com)

• MedicineNet (www.medicinenet.com)

• National Library of Medicine (www.nlm.nih.gov)

• Planet Wellness (www.planetwellness.com)

• WebMD Health (my.webmd.com)

The Absolute Minimum

Here are the key points to remember from this chapter:

• When you need to search for specific information on the Internet, you can use one of the Web's many search engines and directories.

• The most popular Internet search engine is Google, which indexes more than 6 billion individual Web pages.

• Other popular search engines and directories include Yahoo!, AltaVista, and Ask Jeeves!

• It's better to search for people (and their phone numbers and addresses) at specific people-search sites, such as InfoSpace and Switchboard.

• The most popular news sites on the Web are those run by traditional news organizations, such as CNN and Fox News.