MEDLINEplus Gets Yet Another Upgrade
Now, Check Out News Articles and Interactive
Tutorials
MEDLINEplus, which was introduced in October 1998, receives a
remarkable six million page hits each month. Usage has doubled in
just the past six months. 
In addition to "health topics" on individual diseases and medical
conditions, the site has an extensive medical encyclopedia with
thousands of illustrations, detailed information about more than
9,000 brand name and generic prescription and over-the- counter
drugs, a medical dictionary, directories of doctors and hospitals,
and links to ClinicalTrials.gov, the NIH website listing more than
5,000 clinical studies. There are even links to MEDLINE, so that the
user can access the latest published research.
This popular consumer health site continues to add to its arsenal
of helpful resources, as the items below attest.
News Stories on Health and Wellness
"So many sites and so little time" is the plaint of many faced
with searching the web for health information. Finding up-to-date
health information just became a bit easier with the addition of a
daily health news feed from the major U.S. print media to the
National Library of Medicine's MEDLINEplus consumer-friendly site.
Every weekday morning the home page of medlineplus.gov (that's
the complete web address) is updated with health-related articles
selected from the Associated Press, New York Times Syndicate, and
United Press International. The Library has made special
arrangements with the publishers to make the articles available, and
more sources will be added in the future. They will not only be
listed on the home page, but each will be linked to one or more of
the "health topics" within MEDLINEplus.
Thus, for example, someone interested in diabetes will find a
section called "Latest News" at the top of the diabetes page. In
addition to highlighting important news items on the MEDLINEplus
home page, a complete list of news items from the last 30 days is
also available, a feature that may prove especially useful to
librarians.
"We realize how important it is for people who search for
information on the web, for their personal health and that of their
families, to be able to go to a site they trust. This latest news
feature from authoritative press sources is a new and welcome
addition to our service," said Donald A.B. Lindberg, MD, Director of
the National Library of Medicine.
Interactive Health Tutorials
MEDLINEplus has also added a series of interactive modules for
patient education. There are 30 topics in the series, including
diseases and conditions, such as diabetes and back pain; tests and
procedures, such as colonoscopy and CT scan; treatment procedures,
such as breast cancer surgery, coronary artery bypass, and prostate
surgery; and modules in Spanish on diabetes and hypertension.
Each module, which takes about 10 minutes to review, uses
animated graphics and explains a condition or procedure in
easy-to-read language. The user can also listen to the tutorial or
print the text of each from a PDF file. The modules require a Flash
plug-in, version 4 or above, which may be downloaded free of charge.
The tutorials were prepared by the Patient Education Institute
(PEI) and modified to NLM's specifications. PEI is a private company
located on the Technology Innovation Campus of the University of
Iowa. More topics are in preparation and will be added to
MEDLINEplus in the coming months.
The tutorials may be accessed directly at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials.html
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