Where do you get your health information? [Reblog]

Where do you get your health information? ‹ Reader — WordPress.com.

From a June 2015 post at drgladstone

Recently there was something in the news about roughly half of the information in the shows “the doctors” and the Dr. Oz show was correct (actually it was 63% of the time in “the doctors: and correct about 49% on the Dr. Oz show). See an article reporting on this here. Often times people will have looked things up on the internet when they come into the office.

Now I’m not bringing this up to knock Dr. Oz or the doctors who appear on “The Doctors”, nor looking things up the internet. However it’s important to ask several questions.
1) Does the claim have any scientific basis?
2) Has the study (if a study is being quoted) been replicated with the same or similar results obtained?
2a) who funded the study? was it reported in a reputable journal? If it is a product being touted, did the company making the product fund the study?
3) Does the person ‘reporting’ the results, or pushing the product have a connection with the company? Just because someone is employed or funded doesn’t necessarily mean they’re biased, but it is something to take into account

…

Read the entire post here

Related Resources

Medline Plus (National Insitutes of Health)  is a great starting point for reliable health information.Over 750 topics on conditions, diseases, and wellness.  Information on drugs, herbs, and supplements. Links to directories (health care providers, health care facilities, etc) and organizations which provide health information. Surgery videos, interactive health tutorials, and more.

Patients and Consumers – AHRQ

  Latest information for improving your health, including podcasts and videos

The CDC is the US government’s primary way to communicate information on diseases, conditions, and safety. Information may be found in areas as …. Diseases and Conditions Emergency Preparedness and Response Environmental Health Healthy Living Injury Prevention and Control eMedicine Health has over 900 health and medical articles.   Most articles include causes, symptoms, treatment options, prevention, prognosis, and more. Information may also be browsed by topic (Topics A-Z).  Additional features include picture slideshows, etools, and more.      Familydoctor.org includes health information for the whole family Short generalized information on Diseases and Conditions (with A-Z index), Health Information for Seniors, Men, and Women, Healthy Living Topics, pages geared to Parenting & Kids.  Numerous health tools in the left column (as health trackers, health assessments, and a Search by Symptom page. Healthfinder.gov is a US government Web site with information and tools that can help you stay healthy.   KidsHealth provides information about health, behavior, and development from before birth through the teen years.Material is written by doctors in understandable language at three levels: parents, kids, and teens. KidsHealth also provides families with perspective, advice, and comfort about a wide range of physical, emotional, and behavioral issues that affect children and teens

Patient Care and Health Information contains trusted information on diseases and conditions  (including a symptom checker), drugs and supplements, tests and procedures, and healthy lifestyle information.      UpToDate For Patients has a Patient Information tab to find information by topic or through a search box. Topics help one to learn more about a medical condition, better understand management and treatment options, and have a better dialogue with health care providers.   [Adapted from Great Places to start (Univ of Toledo Consumer Health LibGuide)]

Even more….

Health Resources for All Edited by Janice Flahiff

Consumer Health Library Guide – University of Toledo
mostly link to free reputable Web sites

Mobile Healthcare Information For All

This is one noble cause!  However, I think that education should go hand in hand with this.
It is one thing to have access to healthcare information. Another thing to understand and be able to use information.

Still, I am hoping that telecoms get on board, and give back to their communities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• Mobile Applications and the CDC (msaltaego.wordpress.com)

 

Blog Roll: Our Favorite Health Blogs

Includes areas as nutrition, healthcare, health communication, and health/medical resources

 

SurroundHealth Blog

With tons of health blogs out there today, it can be overwhelming trying to find solid ones to follow that are a good fit for your topic of interest. At SurroundHealth, we look for bloggers that align with our goals of sharing resources and best practices in areas such as: health education/communication, professional development and health careers, health and education technology, and current health events.

While this isn’t a FULL list of the blogs we follow, we thought it would be nice to share with our members and readers some of our favorite (in no specific order) health blogs out there!

Our ‘favorites’ blog roll:

Health ECareers Network– HeCN is a really informative blog providing access to everything healthcare careers- news, information, events, career resources and employment opportunities – all specific to individual career paths. Definitely a good one to check out if you are looking to learn…

View original post 290 more words

Health Literacy Resources: Professional Healthcare Organizations and Associations

Great links to resources as
–High Value Care resources intended to help patients understand the benefits, harms and costs of tests and treatments for common clinical issues.
–Case Management Society of America’s has a consumer page that describes Case Management as a collaborative process of assessment, planning, facilitation and advocacy for options and services to meet an individual’s health needs
–Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is a resource for food, nutrition, and health information. Consumers can find tip sheets, videos, brochures, and health & nutrition guides for women, men, and children.

Related articles

• How Concerned Should You Be About Health Literacy? (engagingthepatient.com)
• Nutritionists Say Proposed Law Would Put Them Out of Business (njspotlight.com)
• Are America’s Nutrition Professionals in the Pocket of Big Food? (articles.mercola.com)
• Why I Am an Advocate for Health Literacy and What We Can Do To Help (footscribe.wordpress.com)
• The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Junk Food Industry (edibleprogress.com)
• PHYSICAL LITERACY – Essential for Life (bcathletics.wordpress.com)

 

Privacy Threats When Seeking Online Health Information

From the 8 July 2013 JAMA Internal Medicine article

Patients increasingly use the Internet to access health-related information for which they are not charged.¹In turn, websites gather information from those who browse their sites and target advertisements to them. Yet this business model masks a more complicated picture.

A patient who searches on a “free” health-related website for information related to “herpes” should be able to assume that the inquiry is anonymous. If not anonymous, the information knowingly or unknowingly disclosed by the patient should not be divulged to others.

The full text is not available online.
However, it might be available at a local public, academic, or medical library. Call ahead and ask for a reference librarian.

Related articles

• The price of searching for free health information online, your privacy (blogs.mcall.com)
• Beware health searches: Web data may be leaked to third parties (zdnet.com)
• Searcher Beware: Some Websites May Leak Your Hunt For ‘Herpes’ (commonhealth.wbur.org)
• Many health websites tracking and sharing search info: study (ctvnews.ca)
• Internet Health Searches Not Private: Research (medindia.net)
• Consumer Health Websites Could Be Sharing Your Personal Data With Third Parties (medicaldaily.com)
• Patients searching for health info online face privacy threats: researcher (rawstory.com)
• Your Internet Medical Search Isn’t Private, Study Finds (webmd.com)
• Health searches may be contagious (politico.com)

 

Health Resources in Multiple Languages

Those of you who follow my blog notice that from time to time I highlight multilingual health information Web sites as Healthy Roads Media.

Recently (via a US govt listserv- PHPartners) I ‘ve come across a wonderful list of general health information resources in multiple languages. This resource list is a subset of the larger  Multi-Cultural Resources for Health Information. Multi-Cultural Resources includes links in the following areas

• Cultural Competency
• Dictionaries, Glossaries, and Online Translation Tools
• Health Literacy
• Health Resources in Multiple Languages
• Interpreting in Health Care
• Law, Policy, and Standards
• Limited English Proficiency
• Multicultural Research
• Organizations and Portals
• Refugee Health Portals
• Disclaimer

Oh, I haven’t forgotten. Here is the list of Health Resources in Multiple Languages.

 

• Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Documents in Other Languages 
  Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Consumer Health Information in Many Languages
  Multilingual online health resources, organized by specific
  languages, including glossaries
  National Network of Libraries of Medicine, National Library of Medicine
• EurasiaHealth Knowledge Network 
  Clearinghouse of free resources on Central & Eastern Europe and
  the New Independent States
  American International Health Alliance
  United States Agency for International Development
• Facts for Families 
  In English, Spanish, German, Malaysian, Polish, and Icelandic
  American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• Health Access Project
  Translated Hospital Instructions
• Health Information Translations 
  Information for limited English proficiency patients translated into various languages
  The Ohio State University Medical Center, Mount Carmel Health System
  OhioHealth
• Health on the Net Select 
  Searchable database of medical and health queries
  Available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese
• Health Translations Directory 
  From Australia. Contains links to online multi-lingual resources
  Department of Human Services
  State Government of Victoria, Australia
• Healthy Roads Media 
  Site contains free health education materials in a number of languages
  and a variety of formats
  Healthy Roads Media
• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada 
  Material available in English and French. French link found at bottom of page
  Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Multilingual Health and Safety Resource Guide
  Labor Occupational Health Program, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health
  University of California at Berkeley
• Multilingual Health Information
  Stanford Health Library, Stanford University
• Free Publications for Women
  Easy-to-read pamphlets, available multiple languages
  Office of Women’s Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Patient Information Brochures for Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgery 
  Material available in English, French, Polish, Spanish, and Vietnamese
  The Society of Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons
• Resources by Language
  Health topics in 50 languages
  NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service
  New South Wales, Australia
• Translated British Columbia Health Files
  Fact sheets translated into Chinese, French, Punjabi, Spanish, and Vietnamese
  Ministry of Health, British Columbia, Canada
• Urban Health Partners
  Spotlight on Arabic language health materials and Arab American health.
  Additional materials on Culturally Responsive Health Care
  Vera P. Shiffman Medical Library, Wayne State University
• Vaccine Information in Other Languages
  Vaccine information in over 30 languages
  Immunization Action Coalition
• West Nile Virus Multilingual Fact Sheets
  Patient education materials about West Nile Virus in 22 languages
  Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care
  Government of Ontario, Canada

Related articles

• 5 tips for engaging with multilingual audiences on social media (prdaily.com)
• More Resources On Different Cultures (larryferlazzo.edublogs.org)
• Web Resources for African Languages‏ (metaglossia.wordpress.com)
• “I Read It on the Internet, So It Must Be True”: The Importance of Media Literacy (healthed.typepad.com)
• Digital Health Literacy: Separating Fact From Fiction (healthed.typepad.com)
• Internet Health Information: Be a Savvy Consumer! (julia5150.com)
• More Consumers Get Health Info On Mobile Devices (informationweek.com)

 

Grasping and even celebrating uncertainty ( How Journalists Can Aid Critical Thinking in Healthcare Decisions) With Resources By Yours Truly

As you regular followers of this blog realize, I champion critical thinking and hope at least some of these blog posts have fostered this approach to selecting what is best for one’s health.
Many of my posts caution against quick fixes, be it fad diets, supplement dependence, or use of potentially harmful complementary medicine substances. To be fair, I have also posted items questioning “Western medicine” practices as when robotic surgery is appropriate.

Gary Schwitzer at HealthNewsReview.org has posted yet another item on how journalists can help us all in healthcare decisions..
Excerpts

Marya Zilberberg posted, “Fast science: No time for uncertainty.”  Excerpt:

“…my anxiety about how we do clinical science overall is not new; this blog is overrun with it. However, the new branch of that anxiety relates to something I have termed “fast science.” Like fast food it fills us up, but the calories are at best empty and at worst detrimental. What I mean is that science is a process more than it is a result, and this process cannot and should not be microwaved….

So, let’s celebrate uncertainty. Let’s take time to question, answer and question again. Slow down, take a deep breath, cook a slow meal and think.”

That’s similar to how I ended my talk at the University of Wisconsin’s event, “Science Writing in the Age of Denial” this week.  I said that:

“Journalists could help people grasp uncertainty and help them apply critical thinking to health care decision-making issues…rather than promote false certainty, shibboleths and non-evidence-based, cheerleading advocacy.”

My talk to University of Wisconsin event, “Science Writing in Age of Denial”

View more PowerPoint from Gary Schwitzer

Related Resources (from my Health/Medical  News & Resources Web site)

• The Penn State Medical Center Library has a great guide to evaluate health information on the Internet.

  The tips include

  • Remember, anyone can publish information on the internet!
  • If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
    If the Web site is primarily about selling a product, the information may be worth checking from another source.
  • Look for who is publishing the information and their education, credentials, and if they are connected with a trusted coporation, university or agency.
  • Check to see how current the information is.
  • Check for accuracy. Does the Web site refer to specific studies or organizations?
• The Family Caregiver Alliance has a Web page entitled Evaluating Medical Research Findings and Clinical Trials

Topics include

• General Guidelines for Evaluating Medical Research
• Getting Information from the Web
• Talking with your Health Care Provider

• Consumer’s Guide to Taking Charge of Health Information (Harvard Center for Risk Analysis)
• How to Evaluate Health Information on the Internet (US National Cancer Institute)9iiu9
• Quackwatch (a private corporation operated by Stephen Barrett, MD)

…And a Rumor Control site of Note (in addition to Quackwatch)

National Council Against Health Fraud

National Council Against Health Fraud is a nonprofit health agency fousing on health misinformation, fruad, and quackery as public health problems. Links to publications, position papers and more.

Saving patients from Internet health information

Quite a few of my blog postings encourage folks to be well informed in making health care decisions.
However, I do agree with the author of this post – use your information to consult with a health care provider.  (I believe even e-patient Dave believes in discussing what he has researched with his physicians) These professionals at the very least are to be viewed as consultants. Please meet with them when considering taking strong actions, as discontinuing a medication based on what you read on the Internet (even trusted resources I quote !)

From the 2 February 2012 article by Stewart Segal, MD at KevinMD.com 

Lately, I get the feeling that I’m doing something wrong.  I’m supposed to form a partnership with my patients.  My patients are supposed to be the working partner and I’m supposed to be the consulting partner.

My job as the consulting partner is to offer sagely medical advice to the boss (working partner).  As a consultant, I’m supposed to help in the making of key decisions, find the appropriate tools to help make the boss healthy and happy, and instruct the boss in how to implement those tools should he decide to follow my advice.

As the boss and working partner, my patient is supposed to weigh his options, institute those procedures and treatments as prescribed and to keep me updated on how he is doing.  His job should also entail reviewing key health decisions with me prior to making changes in his overall healthcare.

Lately, my patients have been making unilateral decisions.  In other words, they have not been consulting with me, their doc, prior to changing or stopping their medications or other treatments.  While it is well within their rights to institute or stop any medical intervention on their own, it is often wiser to utilize the services of a trained consultant/doc……

Related articles

• Who is Biz Stone and What is Twitter? (by Fred Trotter at the Health Care Blog)

             Excerpt

HIMSS, and in many cases traditional health IT along with it, is experiencing something of a whirlwind. One force adding wind has been the fact that President Obama has funded EHR systems with meaningful use, and made it clear that the future of healthcare funding will take place at Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) that are paid to keep people healthy rather than to cover procedures when they are sick. It is hard to understate the importance of this. Meaningful Use and ACOs will do more to computerize medicine in five years than the previous 50 years without these incentive changes.

But in the same breath, we must admit that the healthcare system as a whole is strained and unable to meet the needs of millions of its patients. The new force in healthcare is peer to peer medicine. There are really only a few things that doctors provide to patients. They either provide treatment, or they provide facts, or perhaps, they provide context for those facts. More and more, patients are seeking facts and context for that information, from the Internet generally and other patients specifically. This can be dangerous, but when done correctly it can be revolutionary .

It’s not rocket science really; our culture has changed. Baby boomers still wonder if it is OK to discuss sexual issues in polite company. Their kids blog about their vasectomies. It’s not just that we blog about vasectomies. We read blogs about vasectomies and consider it normal….

…

For whatever reason, the epatient community centers around Twitter. More than likely this is because of the fundamentally open nature of this network. Although it is possible to “protect” tweets, most account holders tend to tweet to the whole world. If you are interested in a particular health-related issue, you can use Twitter to find the group of people who are discussing that issue. Twitter is a natural way for people who are connected by a common thought or issue to organize. Facebook, on the other hand, is about connecting with people you already know. The famous quote applies: “Facebook is about people you used to know; Twitter is about people you’d like to know better.” You could change that quote to read “Twitter is about people you’d like to know who have had vasectomies.”..

• Can an App a Day Keep the Doctor Away? (2010 closing interactive panel of the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media) (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Consumers can have greater control over spending on health than previously thought (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• The rise of citizen scientists and patient initiated research (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Patient engagement is the holy grail of health care (kevinmd.com)

Fee based health info may be free online through your library’s Web site

The Internet has a wealth of health information from trusted, reliable sites.
(I’ve noted quite a few in this blog and at my Google site – Health and Medical News and Resources)

However, it is not always easy to locate health information, especially on specific topics.

Your local public or academic library just may have the online sources you need.
Although quite a few online resources require paid subscriptions, your library may have included them at their Web site.
All you have to do is register for borrowing privileges (get a library card) at your local library.
Alternatively, you may be able to just go to the library and get access through their computers.

At my local library, I discovered the following…some or all just might be at your library also…ask a reference librarian or check the library’s Web site

• Alt Health Watch 
  Offers information about Alternative Health issues, including complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. Provides full text articles form a number of sources, including: journals, reports, consumer newsletters, pamphlets, booklets, special reports, original research and book excerpts. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
• ConsumerReports.org
  Ratings and reviews, recommendations and buying advice for thousands of products and services. Users will also find in-depth advice, tips and trends written by Consumer Reports experts. Frequently updated articles, blogs and video content allow consumers to peruse the latest consumer news — whether they’re looking to learn more about budget-friendly home improvement plans, understanding the benefits and risks of retirement options, or searching for the latest recalls of baby products. This database provided by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.
• Health & Wellness Resource Center
  Provides up-to-date reference material as well as full-text magazines, journals, and pamphlets from a wide variety of authoritative medical sources. Includes streaming videos featuring medical experts plus links to key health websites.
• Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
  Provides scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines and featuring the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
• MEDLINE
  Offers medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system and pre-clinical sciences among many subjects. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.
• Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection
  Covers many psychological topics, including emotional and behavioral characteristics, psychiatry and psychology, mental processes, anthropology, and observational and experimental methods. This database is provided by OPLIN, the Ohio Public Library Information Network.

Related Resources

• How to obtain free/low cost medical and scientific articles(jflahiff.wordpress.com)
  • Some publishers which provide free or low cost articles (via PatientInform)
    • Elsevier Patient Research provides single copies of articles for $4.95. Elsevier publishes over 2,000 journals.
    • AACR’s (American Association for Cancer Research) policy for free patient access to medical articles—“If You Need It, You Can Read It”—can be found under Information for Readers/Subscribers.
    • The Endocrine Society For Patients page provides information on how to obtain free articles from its six endocrine research journals.
• “Summaries for Patients” and other plain language summaries help patients and others understand medical studies and guidelines (jflahiff.wordpress.com)

Related articles

• Search the Office of Minority Health’s Library Catalog Online | Health Information Literacy – for health and well being (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• A Consumer Health Toolkit for Library Staff and the Rest of Us(jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Cochrane Reviews – A Great Source for Sound Medical Evidence(jflahiff.wordpress.com)

• Free Databases from the US Government (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Health Information from the US National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Healthy Roads adds “A Quick Look at Medicare” and other free patient education resources

Posted on December 19, 2011 at
Health Information Literacy – for health and well being

Reflections on the importance of health information literacy awareness and how it impacts the public health of our citizens. Low health literacy affects nearly 50% of the US population.

The following was posted to several listservs by Mary Alice Gillispie, M.D.; Healthy Roads Media.   “Healthy Roads Media has several new free patient education resources.  There is now a Spanish version of Advance Directives in multiple formats.  There is also an English version of A Quick Look at Medicare in multiple formats.  The link iswww.healthyroadsmedia.org/topics/personalhealth.htm   We hope to have materials on both Medicare and Medicaid in English, Spanish and Russian in the next couple of months.
If you work for one of the hundreds of organizations who uses Healthy Roads Media materials but have not provided any support, please consider making an end of the year tax deductible donation (www.healthyroadsmedia.org/donate.htm).  Keeping these materials free and adding new resources is an increasing challenge!

– Mary Alice Gillispie, M.D.

Related Resources

• General Comprehensive Health Resources (at Health and Medical News and Resources by Janice Flahiff)
• Healthy Roads Media and other sources of quality health information in many languages and multiple formats (jflahiff.wordpress.com)

Related articles

• Study Reveals Health-Literate Patients Not Always Adept At Managing Heart Failure Care (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Information Literacy Beyond Library 2.0 (aplaceofmind.ubc.ca)
• Healthy Roads Media Site Adds More Resources (aa47.wordpress.com)
• Study Reveals Health-Literate Patients Not Always Adept At Managing Heart Failure Care (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Heart failure study: Health-literate patients not always adept at managing care (eurekalert.org)
• Medication Safety Booklet in Spanish and English | Health Information Literacy – for health and well being (jflahiff.wordpress.com)