Medical

Very complete medical information, drugs, hospitals, alternative medicine, Advanced directives, Power of Attorney

Dictionaries
  • On Line Medical Dictionary Search Dorland’s Medical Dictionary by term or by using the alphabetical directory.
  • MEDLINEplus Dictionary Allows you to type the first few letters of the word followed by an asterisk.
  • Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs Information that helps you determine which medicines fit both your bill of health and your
    wallet.  Some information is offered in Spanish.
  • Cancer.gov Federal Government’s principal agency for cancer research, training and information dissemination.  Assesses the
    incorporation of state-of-the-art cancer treatments into clinical practice.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) U.S. government site on disease control.
  • Familydoctor.org This information from the American Academy of Family Physicians has been written and reviewed by
    physicians and patient education professionals and is reviewed and updated regularly.
  • Healthfinder® National Health Information Center, U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services.
  • HIV InSite HIV information
  • Kidshealth®
  • Mayo Clinic The well-respected Mayo clinic information on diseases and conditions, healthy living, drug search, first aid etc.
  • MEDEM: an information partnership of medical societies Offers consumer and more advanced reliable health care information
  • MEDLINEplus (English | Spanish) Contains more than 700 topics on health and wellness, diseases and drug information
    Includes a medical encyclopedia; dictionary; directories and links to other authoritative consumer sites.
  • NOAH: New York Online Access to Health Provides accurate, timely, relevant and unbiased consumer health information in
    English and Spanish.
  • Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council “An independent state agency responsible for addressing the
    problem of escalating health costs, ensuring the quality of health care, and increasing access for all citizens regardless of
    ability to pay.” (Taken directly from their web site.)
  • Well Connected A library of reports for consumers on common diseases and wellness issues.  Authoritative, in-depth and
    updated regularly.  Library also subscribes to print editions of the reports.
  • Whonamedit is a biographical dictionary of medical eponyms. This site attempts to present a complete survey of all medical phenomena named for a person, with a biography of that person. Eventually, this will include more than 15,000 eponyms and more than 6,000 persons.

Advance directives, Living Wills, Medical Power of Attorney

  • ABOUT ADVANCE DIRECTIVE
    In Pennsylvania adults generally have the right to decide if they want to accept, reject or discontinue medical treatment.  The purpose of an ADVANCE DIRECTIVE is to tell others what medical care and treatment you would like to receive or not receive should you become unable to communicate your wishes.
    The Advance Directive will only take effect when:
    1. Your doctor has a copy of it.
    2. Your doctor has concluded that you are incompetent to make decisions about the medical care you wish to receive
    3. Your doctor and a second doctor have determined that you are in a terminal condition or in a state of permanent unconsciousness

 

If you have questions about Advance Directives your attorney or the following groups are available to provide you with information:

 

  • Area Agency on Aging (see your yellow pages for the phone number of your local agency)
  • Pennsylvania Council of Aging
    555 Walnut Street, 5th Floor
    Harrisburg, PA 17109-1919
    (717) 783-1924
  • The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
    255 Market Street
    Harrisburg, PA 17101
    (717) 238-2277
  • The Pennsylvania Medical Society Business Resource Center
    777 East Park Drive
    Harrisburg, PA 17105-8820
    (717) 558-7750
  • Caring Connections Good explanation plus Advance Directive in PDF format for each state.
  • University of Pittsburg Medical Center Advance Directives, Living Wills, Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
  • Pa Dept of Aging Advance Directives, Living Wills, Power of Attorney for Health Care

 Alternative Health

Benefits

Government and private medical benefit programs including prescription drugs, health care etc.

  • Benefits Checkup Free online service sponsored by the National Council on the Aging that screens individuals over 55 for federal, state and private benefits programs.  Prescription drugs, health care, utilities and other essential items or service.
  • Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance All Federal programs available to State and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally -recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals. After you find the program you want, contact the office that administers the program  and find out how to apply.
  • Government Benefits Confidential government website sponsored by several Federal agencies and organizations.  Helps people find government benefits for which they may be eligible.  Benefits may be direct payments, a loan, insurance, training, or other services.
  • Helping Patients Interactive web site that provides a link to thousands of medicines offered through hundreds of patient assistance programs.  Contains a directory of all the member companies that conduct these programs and the medicines that are covered.
  • Needy Meds Programs available to help consumers who cannot afford their medications.  Application forms when available.
  • The Medicine Program Discounts on drugs provided by participating pharmacies.  No fees, not an insurance program, you pay the discounted price of the drugs.
  • Together RX Discounts on drugs at participating pharmacies

 

Cancer

Children’s Health

American Academy of Pediatrics

BBC Education Kid’s Health

The Congenital Heart Information Network (resources to families of children with congenital and acquired hearth disease)

FDA Kid’s Home Page – colorful, easy from the Food and Drug Administration

Kidshealth®  Numours Foundation

Clinical Trials

  • Clinical Trials.gov Provides current information about clinical research studies.  It is organized by disease treatment, location, and sponsoring organizations.  From National Institute of Health.
  • Clinical Trials Commercial site dealing with clinical trials.

Doctor Directories

  • Doctor’s Disciplinary Actions Has your Dr. had any disciplinary action brought against him?  From Pa Department of State, Bureau of Professional & Occupational affairs; Or check with Healthgrades A commercial site that offers a report including schools associations, background and disciplinary actions.

Hospital directories of doctors and medical specialists  – Also check the web sites of individual hospitals.

Hospitals

Local Hospitals

Famous hospitals

Medical Specialists

Drugs

Drug Benefit Programs

  • Free or Less Expensive Drugs
  • Helping Patients Interactive web site that provides a link to thousands of medicines offered through hundreds of patient assistance programs.  Contains a directory of all the member companies that conduct these programs and the medicines that are covered.
  • Needy Meds Programs available to help consumers who cannot afford their medications.  Application forms when available.
  • The Medicine Program Discounts on drugs provided by participating pharmacies.  No fees, not an insurance program, you pay the discounted price of the drugs.
  • Together RX Discounts on drugs at participating pharmacies

Drug Companies Drug companies often offer discount programs for their drugs.

Drug Information

  • FirstGov for Consumers: Health  Consumer health info from a variety of federal government agencies
  • Geisinger’s Health System’s Health and Wellness info Information on conditions, procedure, medications, natural & alternative treatments, medical news and Wellness & therapeutic centers
  • Go Ask Alice – Columbia University’s Health Education Program.  Explicit sexual information
  • Health Web Cooperative effort of The health sciences librarians of the Committee for Institutional Cooperation to work cooperatively to develop an interface that provides organized access to evaluated non-commercial, health-related, Internet-accessible resources.
  • Intelihealth Harvard Medical School’s Consumer Health Information.
  • Johns Hopkins Medicine Consumer information from Johns Hopkins
  • Lab Tests Online Peer reviewed, noncommercial site on clinical lab testing and the meaning of the tests.

Magazine Articles

  • Health Source: Consumer Edition (EBSCOhost)
    You can search for information on many health topics including the medical
    sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general
    health.  Searchable full text for over 150 journals including Consumer Reports
    on Health and Men’s Health, as well as abstracts and indexing for over 205
    general health, nutrition and professional health care publications.
  • Health Source Nursing/Academic Ed. (EBSCOhost)
    Provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical
    disciplines.  Abstracts and indexing for nearly 850 journals.  Updated on a daily
    basis.
  • MasterFILE Premier, and other Ebsco databases
    Besides the specialized health databases listed above, these are other general
    interest databases that can be searched for health information.  Especially useful
    for periodical and newspaper articles.
  • Highwire Sandford University Library of the Sciences and Medicine.  Free searchable journal articles.
  • Physician and Sports Medicine Peer reviewed monthly journal, deals with medical aspects of exercise, sports and fitness.
  • PubMed The bibliographic info in MEDLINE covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and health care from more than 4600 journals.
  • Medscape Easy to use free site but does require a user to logon.  One of Medscapes’ goals is to make available to a broad medical audience clinical information with the depth, breadth, and validity needed to improve the practice of medicine.

Medical Societies

Medical urban legends

Mental Health Awareness

Just as physical activity keeps your body strong, mental activity keeps your mind sharp and agile. If you learn new  skills your brain continues to grow, literally. An active brain produces new connections between nerve cells that allow cells to communicate with one another. This helps your brain store and retrieve information more easily, no matter what your age.  Want some ideas of new things to try?

  • Learn to play a musical instrument
  • Play Scrabble, or do crossword puzzles or jigsaw puzzles, or word searches
  • Play cards, rummy, bridge, cribbage, chess
  • Interact with others
  • Switch careers or start a new one
  • Start a new hobby, such as crafts, painting, biking or bird-watching
  • Learn a foreign language
  • Volunteer
  • Stay informed about what’s going on in the world
  • Read, Write in a journal
  • Travel
  • Draw or paint
  • Quilt knit, crochet
  • Play Soduko and other challenging puzzles

A mentally stimulating job, taking classes that interest you or even just reading more can help you maintain your memory longer as you age.

Tools for Healthier Lives   Stay physically active; eat right, manage stress, these and many more ideas are explained in the Mayo Clinic Tools for healthier lives.

For the relationship between an active mind and lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease read the study by Dr. Robert Friedland, a neurologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.

Mental Health Information

Health resources

Nursing homes

  • Nursing Home Compare Detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the country.

Health pamphlets

  • Pamphlets Health pamphlets from various federal agencies.

Rare diseases

SARS