Heath & medicine resources for answering background questions
Monday, March 17, 2008 
Aisle of bookshelves in the CDC’s Information Center (photo ID #7940)
As clinicians striving to provide "best practice" in nutritional care, we need to consult up-to-date medical resources for background information.
When you have questions about normal human anatomy and physiology, or pathophysiology, terminology, prognosis or management options, where on the Web do you go? Do you "Google" everything or do you refer to specific online medical resources? Many Canadian (and perhaps some International) dietitians use PEN (Practice Based Evidence in Nutrition) but for topics that do not have comprehensive PEN content yet, what complementary and supplementary resources do you use?
This week I have a Dietetics student with me and thought I should get ready by compiling online resources I've recently discovered. I've used all of them at least once and feel comfortable recommending them as "worth checking out."
- Comprehensive professional reference: MD Consult. (I have free access through my workplace, but a free 30-day trial is available to all.) I've talked about this site before but recently I discovered a new, time-saving feature: Recommended Results for Common Medical Conditions.
References 2-4 are part of MerckSource; 3 & 4 are written for consumers, but also are useful for health care professionals and students seeking quick and simple explanations.
This week I will add more resources to this blog as my student and I find, apply and evaluate them.
Reader Comments (2)
Useful links Elaine - I particularly like the ADAM resource
This one is possibly a little UK oriented (and not very slick to look at) but I like it because it contains summaries on particular medical conditions and management options in several forms, so you can see a laypersons guide next to one aimed at health professionals:
http://www.patient.co.uk/
Thank you, Sophie. I'm going to check this one out. Sounds like a useful format. I do like UK resources -- when it comes to nutrition resources, usually I discover more similarities than differences when we cross borders (or large bodies of water, in this case).