Looking for Health A workshop on finding good health information

•Introductions•What are YOU looking for?•Google tips•Evaluating what you find•MedlinePlus

•Discussion•Feedback

hypertension

34 million web pages? Where do you begin?

How about starting with a definition?

http://www.answers.com/main/health.jsp

menopause symptoms

sleep insomnia

Remember that the phrase must occur in exactly this way on the webpage!

Searching for sleep OR insomnia on the webpage.

Be careful if a medical website tries to

…appeal to greed or vanity

“Everyday Fortunes Are being Created By Professional Men and Women Like Yourself Using “Word Of Mouth Advertising”!!

Be careful if a medical website

…uses quasi-medical claims

“Heartaminocal offers natural protection against heart disease! Clinical research proves that certain nutrients and protective factors are the key to prevent hearth disease and stroke. Heartaminocal is designed to prevent heart & blood vessel disease at every step of the pathway to atherosclerosis.”

Be careful if a medical website

appears to be selling hope – or fear!

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

“Whatever you do, you must read Mason’s ‘The Natural Prostate Cure’ before submitting to your urologist’s knife, chemotherapy, or dangerous drugs! What you do not know could easily kill you.”

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There are no standards for information on the web which would ensure that all information there is

accurate and useful.

Looking for Health A workshop on finding good health information

HealthInfo Island (101,201,23) Saturday October 13 6 a.m. SLT

Tips for using Google to find good quality health information

How MedlinePlus can help

How to evaluate what you find

Carolina Keats

Can the information be verified elsewhere? If ‘research’ is discussed, is further information

given to help you locate the research study?

Key questions to ask when you look for health information

Does the information appear to be professional – or are there spelling and grammar errors?

Who is the author? Can you contact them?What are their credentials? If experts are

mentioned, who are they?

Is the content of the web page current, or does it appear to be dated? (One

indicator of this may be if there arelinks that no longer work.)

Is the information biased? Is it a commercial site, or can you tell where the funding for the site came from?

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