Evaluating and Checking Health Information

Evaluating Health Information on the Internet

www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsp/resources/evaluate.shtml

Quackwatch

www.quackwatch.com

• Author/Organization: Stephen Barrett, MD / Quackwatch, Inc. - a nonprofit corporation, found by Dr. Barret in 1969
• Content: Information on health-related frauds, myths, fads, and fallacies with an emphasis to improve the quality of health information. Joining their discussion list is also an option.
• Special Features: Reports on the investigations of specific questionable health claims, and refutes any claims known to be false or misleading with scientific fact.

Complementary & Alternative Medicine Sites

Alternative and Complementary Medicine Center

www.healthy.net/asp/templates/center.asp?centerid=1

• Author/Sponsor: Advisory board / Health World
• Content: Articles cover more than 2 dozen CAM topics. Also, links to organizations providing additional information are frequently available.
• Special Features: "Find a Practioner" search is Practitioner database that searches by treatment type, with additional search options for name, city, zip or area code, state, or country. Listings come from several national and international professional organizations.

Alternative Medicine Foundation

www.amfoundation.org/info.htm

• Author/Organization: Staff & Advisory Board / Alternative Medicine Foundation, Inc.
• Content: Information guides cover general topics, health issues and specific modalities. The guides are regularly updated.
• Special Features: HerbMed is a great resource for information on the research into herbal medicines. (More details available in the Herbs & Supplements section).

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

nccam.nih.gov

• Author/Organization: National Institutes of Health
• Content: Resources are directed mostly to Health Professionals, however, the Health Information section has some helpful consumer resources on understanding CAM as well as links for information by treatment or condition. Links to Consermer Alerts and Clinical Trials are also available.
• Special Features: NCCAM has a database of clinical trials they are conducting. The database is browsable by condition or disease and by treatment or therapy.

WholeHealthMD

www.wholehealthmd.com

• Author/Organization: Editorial staff / WholeHealthMD
• Content: A very well coordinated site that provides informative articles on vitamins, nutrition and recipes, specific conditions & diseases, a practitioner locator database, and an expert opinion question and answer section.
• Special Features: The site is very easy to navigate and moving from one section to easily accomplished. Responses to questions submitted also include the expert's bio so you know the background and credentials of the person responding.

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Meta Sites for CAM

The Alternative Medicine Homepage

www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html

• Author/Organization: Charles B. Wessel, MLS / Falk Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh
• Content: Information is organized into several main topic areas including Internet Resources (with disease specific links), list of Newsgroups, a list of Practitioner's Directories, and Related Resources.
• Special Features: A page specifically for Diseases or Conditions and a variety of resources in the Practitioner's Directory including national organizations.

Ask NOAH: Complementary & Alternative Medicine

http://www.noah-health.org/en/alternative/index.html

• Author/Organization: University & Public Libraries in New York
• Content: New York Online Access to Health is a listing of links to Internet sites - the CAM site currently covers 21 types of CAM. Additional resource links lead to government sites, Practitioner sites and online journals.
• Special Features: NOAH also has a Spanish website.

Google Web Directory Alternative Medicine

http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Alternative/

• Author/Organization: Google staff.
• Content: This is a directory of CAM therapies.
• Special Features:There are categories for wellness centers and practitioners.

Healthfinder: Alternative Medicine

http://healthfinder.gov/Scripts/SearchContext.asp?topic=35

• Author/Organization: Healthfinder.gov Staff
• Content:Healthfinder has links to over eighty government and nonprofit websites about CAM treatments for cancer, acupuncture, CAM use and children, and more.
• Special Features: healthfinder.gov is one of the Medical Library Association's Top Ten Most Useful Websites.

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: Complementary/Integrative Medicine

www.mdanderson.org/departments/cimer

• Author/Organization: CIMER staff / The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
• Content: This site from provides evidence-based reviews of various complementary and integrative therapies, particularly as it relates to cancer. (What is evidence-based medicine?) Also available are a drug interaction advisory, a list of selected links & resources, and a online video series on CAM. The About Compementary / Integrative Medicine page provides a great basic introduction to the many terms used alternative - integrative - complementary in describing unconventional treatments.
• Special Features: The Recommended reading section links to a web-based book, "Conversations in Care". Also available is a bibliography of books and journals covering CAM or Integrative medicine.

MedlinePlus: Alternative Medicine page

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/alternativemedicine.html

• Author/Organization: National Library of Medicine
• Content: MedlinePlus is resource for accurate and authoritative consumer health information on the internet. Links to resources are grouped into categories including: latest news, from the National Institutes of Health, clinical trials, information on specific conditions, and others. In addition to links for a variety of resources, a link directly to a Medline search.
• Special Features: Related links and the ability to search for specific topics of interest add to the value of this page.

Yahoo! Alternative Medicine

dir.yahoo.com/Health/Alternative_Medicine/

• Author/Organization: Yahoo! staff
• Content: Mostly a list of links, some with brief annotations. The links are organized into: "Inside Yahoo!", "Categories", and "Site Listings including Most Popular and an Alphabetical list.
• Special Features: Inside Yahoo! link leads to Yahoo! articles on a wide variety of topics and current news items on alternative medicine.

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Herbals and Supplements

HerbMed

http://www.herbmed.org

• Author/Organization:HerbMed Staff Alternative Medicine Foundation, Inc.
• Content: HerbMedŽ unique herbal database of research citations and other links that provide access to the scientific data underlying the use of herbs for health. It is an evidence-based information resource for professionals, researchers, and general public. (What is evidence-based medicine?)
• Special Features: Many of the articles cited as evidence have a link to PubMed where an abstract of the article can be read.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center-Herbs, Botanicals, and Other Products

http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/11570.cfm

• Author/Organization:Integrative Medicine Services Staff
• Content:This website allows users to search for information on herbs which includes adverse effects, interactions, and more.
• Special Features:Each herb covered on this website has a monograph section for healthcare professionals and a separate page for consumers.

MedlinePlus: Herbal Medicine Page

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/herbalmedicine.html#cat57

• Author/Organization:National Library of Medicine
• Content: MedlinePlus is resource for accurate and authoritative consumer health information on the internet. Links to resources are grouped into categories including: latest news, from the National Institutes of Health, clinical trials, information on specific conditions, and others. In addition to links for a variety of resources, a link directly to a Medline search.
• Special Features: Related links and the ability to search for specific topics of interest add to the value of this page.

The Office of Dietary Supplements

http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/

• Author/Organization: National Institutes of Health
• Content: A number of resources designed for the consumer are available, including: what are dietary supplements, safety notices, DRI & RDA, factsheets on supplements, and links for additional information.
• Special Features:
International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements database (IBIDS) provides access to bibliographic citations and abstracts from published, international, scientific literature on dietary supplements.

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Research Resources and CAM Online Journals

"BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine" journal

www.biomedcentral.com/bmccomplementalternmed/

• Author/Organization: BioMed Central
• Content: The journal, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine publishes original research regarding complementary and alternative healthcare interventions. BioMed Central publishes this journal and full-text articles are available free. This journal is also indexed in the Medline database.
• Special Features: Free access to full-text online articles.

Bandlier -- Knowledge library "Evidence based thinking about health care" (an online journal)

www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/booths/altmed.html

• Author/Organization: Bandolier
• Content: Bandolier is a print and Internet journal about health care, using evidence-based medicine techniques to provide updated information about particular treatments or diseases for healthcare professionals and consumers. General categories of information include: safety, accupuncture, homeopathy, herbs & supplements, massage, and others
• Special Features: The Knowledge Library has a listing of topics culled from the online journal.

CAM on PubMed

www.nlm.nih.gov/nccam/camonpubmed.html

• Author/Organization: National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
• Content: Medline is a premier biomedical database providing citations and abstracts to journal articles. Medline is provided free to the public through the PubMed.gov website. A special CAM subset was created jointly by the NLM and NCCAM. The CAM subset is a "limit" option -- Search for your CAM topic at PubMed - CAM subset pre-selected.
• Special Features: Links to sample searches provide a quick overview of what a search in PubMed might look like.

Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field

http://www.compmed.umm.edu/cochrane.asp

• Author/Organization: Member of the Cochrane Collaboration.
• Content: The Cochrane CAM Field was founded in 1996 and is coordinated by the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine. The website has a list of Cochrane CAM Reviews. The full text can be found in Cochrane.
• Special Features: There is a glossary of CAM terms and summaries of reviews geared towards consumers.

Databases: Alternative Medicine Resources from Alternative Medicine HomePage

www.pitt.edu/~cbw/about.html

• Author/Organization: Falk Library of the Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
• Content: The database page provides an extensive listing of databases that include alternative or complementary medicine topics. Databases include free as well as subscription databases and links lead to both the databases and pages describing the features of the database. However, no indication is made as to which are free and which require a subscription.
• Special Features: The list is a fairly comprehensive list of possible databases that might further a persons search for sources.

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