Health Professionals: Your Role in Women's Health

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Your Patients and Web Research

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The Pew Internet Project estimates that 75 to 80 percent of Internet users look for health information online. Many consumers don’t realize that the quality and accuracy of online information varies widely. Even if they recognize that some sources are more reliable than others, they may not know how to find these resources. Below are links to information about evaluating health information online. Help your patients out by pointing them toward these and the other resources listed.

Additional Resources

Publications

1. How to Evaluate Health Information on the Internet - As health professionals, you know that patients use the Internet to research health information. You can refer your patients to this site, which discusses how patients can evaluate health information on the Internet.

2. Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial from the National Library of Medicine - When patients discuss health information found on the web, health professionals should stress to patients the importance of credible health web sites. This tutorial can help patients understand the difference between credible health web sites and unreliable health web sites.

3. Internet Health Resources - (Copyright © Pew Internet and American Life) - Do you wonder why most patients look up health information before seeing a health professional? Do you also wonder what health topics are most popular for patients? This study provides information for health professionals that answer these questions and more.

Organizations

1. womenshealth.gov, OWH, HHS

2. MedlinePlus.gov

3. Healthfinder.gov

4. National Health Information Center

5. MayoClinc.com (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research)

6. National Women’s Health Resource Center

7. Familydoctor.org (American Academy of Family Physicians)

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Content last updated December 1, 2008.