“ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) revolutionized gay politics, giving new and forceful meaning to the slogan "out of the closets and into the streets." In celebration of all that ACT-UP accomplished (and that still remains to be done), filmmaker Jim Hubbard and novelist and essayist Sarah Schulman have created a Web site of oral histories of individuals who participated in this significant political movement. While clearly a site under construction (35 additional interviews are due soon), the 19 interviews currently available as PDF downloads and five-minute streaming video excerpts capture the vibrant, urgent, humorous, and tragic aspects of the struggle to bring awareness of the AIDS epidemic out of the shadows and force government officials, pharmaceutical companies, and the general populace to deal morally and ethically with this health care crisis.” – Choice

"The AIDS Education Global Information System (AEGIS), maintained by the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, arguably the most comprehensive HIV-related Web site on the Internet. Since its inception in 1990, the service has matured into a robust, fully operational service with a global network of users." -- Choice

“AIDSinfo, a free NIH site, informs those interested in diagnosing, learning and talking about, and preventing, healing and alleviating the symptoms of HIV/AIDS. The design is pleasing, with a search box, index tabs (featuring Guidelines, Drugs, Clinical Trials, Vaccines, Health Topics, and AIDSinfo Tools), a searchable/browsable glossary, a good site map, and a site tour that explains the contents. AIDSinfo does not use unnecessary graphics, making loading and navigation times speedy.” -- Choice

“AgeLine is one of three AARP online research databases that focus exclusively on the aged. It abstracts social gerontology and aging-related information in publications that include journal articles, books, and research and government reports. Basic and advanced searching techniques are offered, with coverage from 1966 to the present. A thesaurus of controlled descriptors is available. Several high-interest, ready-made thematic topics such as "Long Term Care & Caregiving" and "An Aging Society" are part of the AgeLine "to Go" collections, and can be browsed.” -- Choice

“Created in 1989 and reauthorized in 1999, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. AHRQ's mission is to support "research designed to improve the quality of healthcare" in order to "reduce its cost, improve patient safety, decrease medical errors, and broaden access to essential services." The AHRQ Web site helps sustains this mission by providing a variety of resources including evidence reports, technology assessments, surveys, data projects, and research newsletters. The amount of information available is impressive. Coverage includes health conditions/diseases, nursing research, prescriptions, smoking cessation, surgery, and men's, women's, children's, and minority health.” – Choice

“This attractive site is easy to navigate and full of information about Alzheimer's disease. Under the section titled Alzheimer's Disease on the home page, users will find an interesting slide show--Inside the Brain: An Interactive Tour. A map provides links to Alzheimer's Association offices throughout the US. In all areas the focus is on the US, with little information on Alzheimer's disease in other countries (though a number of international conferences are listed under News & Events, and the Web Links section includes a link to Alzheimer's Disease International).” – Choice

“This is the official Web site of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a 60,000-member group of pediatricians committed to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. It provides general information related to health from birth through age 21. Additionally, the site provides information for practitioners pertaining to the academy's programs, activities, policy statements, and practice guidelines.” – Choice

"This well-designed resource provides links to other Web sites and online resources with authoritative cultural and medical information related to American Indians. Sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, it points to a wealth of relevant information from the library and numerous other governmental entities, such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Women's Health Information Center, and the Centers for Disease Control. Main categories include traditional healing, environmental health, access to health care, and other relevant health topics. Direct links to the official Web sites of more than 30 Native American tribal groups are featured prominently, along with an interactive form for suggesting other official tribal sites." -- Choice

"Statistics indicate that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is anywhere from 1 in 500 children to 1 in 166. In the US approximately 24,000 children born every year will eventually be diagnosed with an ASD. Children with ASD have a wide range of capabilities, and the scope of their disorders can differ widely. The most common traits include inability to socialize with others; lack of communication, including absent or delayed talking; inability to pick up on social cues like body language; and unusual sensitivity to sounds, light, or changes in routine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer the Autism Information Center (AIC) to physicians, therapists, researchers, students, and especially families of children who may have been diagnosed with any of the ASDs, which include autistic disorder, Asperger syndrome, and "pervasive developmental disorder--not otherwise specified." The AIC site includes information about symptoms, conditions, and possible causes of ASD along with resources, information about congressional initiatives, and much more." -- Choice

“The Penn Center's mission is to "promote scholarly and public understanding of the ethical, legal, social and public policy implications of advances in the life sciences and medicine." Its Web site reflects the Center's educational and research enterprises, led by director Arthur L. Caplan.” – Choice

“BioInteractive is an award-winning site constructed and maintained by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. It offers browsers a number of exciting educational options drawn from the research interests of the Institute. Major destinations in the site include virtual laboratories, virtual (museum) exhibits, video of lectures, and animations.” – Choice

“Developed by the National Library of Medicine and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), CAM (last reviewed, CH, Mar’99, 36-3663) is a subset of the PubMed database (CH, Feb'06, 43-3422). Health care practices currently not considered an integral part of conventional medicine are defined by NCCAM as complementary or alternative. CAM (last reviewed, CH, Mar'99, 36-3663) provides access to journal article citations in this field, including those related to therapies, approaches, and systems. Examples of subjects covered include herbal medicine, chiropractic manipulation, hypnosis, traditional Oriental medicine, and acupuncture. Since CAM runs on the PubMed platform, all of the standard features of PubMed are available, including searching by medical subject headings (MeSH), limiting, maintaining a search history, and accessing free full text where available. Searches are automatically limited to CAM citations when one uses CAM from the NCCAM Web site.” – Choice

"CROET Web is a one-stop Web site truly dedicated to occupational and environmental health issues. It is the work of scientists, educators, and information specialists at the Oregon Health/Science University in Portland, Oregon; CROET stands for "Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology."" -- Choice

"CDC WONDER (Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research) is an integrated, menu-driven information and communication system that aids both public health professionals and the public with information-based decision making. The site provides access to specific and detailed information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the CDC's own published statistical research data, along with reference materials, reports, and guidelines on health-related topics." -- Choice

"CIDRAP's site provides thorough, authoritative, up-to-date information related to emerging infectious diseases, based on scientific research and collaboration. The site is available through the University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center. Working with a variety of organizations, CIDRAP develops training materials and implements and evaluates public health exercises. CIDRAP's four major areas of concentration are "public health preparedness, emerging infectious disease response, agricultural and food biosecurity, and food safety."" -- Choice

“This new database is composed of US Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription medication package insert information, listed by brand and generic names. The NLM maintains currency by regularly processing data files from the FDA system.” – Choice

"Provided by the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, this valuable resource offers full-text health care delivery research reports, and the interactive capability to use extensive collected data to construct reports. The focus is documenting, analyzing, and reporting the distribution of/access to medical resources/services on national, regional, and local levels. Used by health care researchers and administrators, policy makers, and the media, the widely respected reports and data influence national understanding of health care system effectiveness, resource use/availability, and the incidence levels of chronic conditions and treatment practices." -- Choice

"New to join the plethora of drug information sites is the National Library of Medicine's Drug Information Portal. What sets it apart from similar sites is its provision--to health care professionals, researchers, and consumers--of reliable, easily comprehensible, and current information from renowned and reputable sources (mainly key government agencies)." -- Choice

"This free, award-winning, anatomy Web site disproves the adage "you can't get something for nothing." Comprised of more than 1,500 slices from normal CT and MRI exams, along with illustrations, this site is incredibly useful for those studying anatomy." -- Choice

“FDA Consumer, the official magazine of the US Food and Drug Administration, reports on FDA activities and provides informative tips on staying healthy. Coverage begins with the December 1988 issue, including mainly tables of contents from December 1988 through June 1995. Full-text articles for the complete issue are available from July/August 1995 through the present.” -- Choice

"Funded by the National Institutes of Health, GeneTests is maintained at the University of Washington, Seattle. Target audiences are physicians, health care providers, and researchers. The terms of use include a disclaimer about the nature of the site, its intended use, and a statement of limitation of liability. Sections include GeneReviews, Educational Materials, and directories of genetic testing laboratories and genetics diagnosis clinics. GeneReviews is a growing database of technical, peer-reviewed descriptions of genetic diseases. Expert authors and editors update the reviews and revise individual reports to reflect new discoveries. One may search the database using a disease name, gene symbol, protein name, disease feature, author, or title. Disease features are phrases/search words such as "behavior disorder," "craniofacial," "dental," "eye," "growth," "metabolic," "neuropathy," "seizures," and "stroke." Search results list diseases or syndromes with links to Testing, Research, Resources, and Reviews." -- Choice

“The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation now brings world health information and statistics to everyone in a concise, intuitive format. Searchable topics include HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases of global concern. Statistics from hundreds of countries (Afghanistan to Zimbabwe) are available in an easy to search and sort format.” – Choice

“Grey Matters (GM), an educational lecture series from UC San Diego, focuses on recent developments in brain research. Lectures are delivered in streaming video. Numerous organizations in the San Diego area focus on neuroscience research, so this Web site promotes public awareness of recent developments in topics such as sleep, stem cells, brain development, addiction, and perception. Topics covered in the Explore and Discover section have streaming video programs about an hour long, with links to an overview, study guide, exploration activities, other Web sites, teacher resources, and information about the scientists.” – Choice

“HEALTHmap provides public health officials and international travelers with a one-stop shop for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases.” – Choice

"Healthcare 411 provides health care news programs in audio, video, and text formats. All content is produced by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. AHRQ's mission is "to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans." -- Choice

“Maintained by two librarians for The History of Health Sciences section of the Medical Library Association, this site provides access to a number of interesting resources. Particularly useful are links to organizations in the field, including libraries, archives, educational programs, and museums, although the listings are not comprehensive and are mostly, though not all, US-based. Several sections provide links to other history-of-medicine-related Web sites, grouped under broad and not always descriptive categories. A section somewhat misleadingly titled Important Figures in Health Sciences--Their Lives and Works does indeed include useful links about particular people, but also links to sites such as that of the Office of the Surgeon General. Most sections are arranged in alphabetical rather than subject order. Links include Internet mailing lists, newsgroups, and journals; most of the latter are not available full-text.” – Choice

"HubMed is one of many alternative interfaces to PubMed (CH, Feb'06, 43-3422), NCBI's premier database of the world's biomedical journals. Developed and maintained by programmer Alf Eaton, HubMed features a simple search box and the option to sort results by date or relevance. Results include links to view abstract and full text, if available; to save citations to a clipboard; and to search for related articles." -- Choice

“Inside Cancer was developed by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (New York) with a grant from the NIH. The easy-to-navigate Web site employs animations and narrative clips of experts to explain the development, lethal characteristics, causes/prevention, and diagnosis/treatment of cancer. The well-designed home page offers four broad cancer topics--Hallmarks of Cancer, Causes and Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment, and Pathways to Cancer--and subsections.” – Choice

“Aetna's InteliHealth, established in 1996, has partnered with the Harvard Medical School and the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine to provide quality consumer health information.” – Choice

"Formerly known as BIOME (CH, Sup'05, 42Sup-0233), this free service aims to provide access to "the very best Web resources for education and research" in the health and life sciences." -- Choice

“The mission of this consumer health Web site is "to empower people to manage their health" by "providing useful and up-to-date information and tools that reflect the expertise and standard of excellence of Mayo Clinic." Produced by a team of "Web professionals and medical experts" and owned by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, this site is well designed, up-to-date, and authoritative.” -- Choice

This online Medical Library is the information section of a communications network established by seven professional medical associations, including the AMA. The site's editor in chief is a physician, and the Web site is included in the Medical Library Association's list of the top ten most useful Web sites for health care consumers http://www.mlanet.org/resources/medspeak/topten.html. This well-organized site has much to recommend it, presenting information in the categories Life Stages, Diseases and Conditions, Therapies and Health Strategies, and Health and Society. The information itself is from publications of member organizations, government agencies, and other reputable professional associations. Sources and dates are clearly indicated. The excellent search engine returns results marked for both relevancy and complexity.

“MedlinePlus (CH, Jul'06, 43-6562) includes Medical Encyclopedia, licensed from A.D.A.M., a company that provides health information to hospitals, businesses, organizations, and schools. A.D.A.M. follows the principles of the Health on the Net Foundation http://www.hon.ch/ and is accredited by the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission. Frequently updated, and available in English and Spanish versions, the encyclopedia offers over 4,000 articles on diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries.” – Choice

“This reviewer first looked at the NCCAM Web site in 2001 during an excellent Medical Library Association course on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), promptly organized a separate MLA section on the topic, and added this listing to her library's health links. NCCAM's Web site, supported by NIH, remains the most timely, authoritative, easy to navigate, and relevant resource on this topic for consumers and practitioners.” – Choice

"An impressive site maintained free of charge for educational purposes only and updated regularly, MEDLINEplus allows a wide audience of users from laypersons to professionals access to selected, quality, authoritative health information through easy navigation, fairly rapid speed of loading, and a minimum of overlapping of resources. Primary emphasis is placed on material from the well-respected National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health." -- Choice

"The Office of Minority Health, a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is a federal agency whose mission is to develop policies and programs to reduce health disparities that adversely affect racial and ethnic minority populations. The agency's Web site, displayed in English and Spanish, supports that mission through the publication of materials in 17 languages on a variety of health topics of interest to these special populations." -- Choice

“CDC's PHIL contains hundreds of print quality images related to public health. The home page has a Quick Search box for keywords, with options to limit to photographs, illustrations, or video. It highlights featured image collections and offers guides tailored to various populations, e.g., students, health care providers, and librarians. The Advanced Search screen includes options such as a category search, exact phrase and field searching, and limiters to the past six months or year; it offers options to search for only public domain or copyrighted images, and for black-and-white or color images. The category search has hierarchical trees of CDC subject terms and the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), familiar to MEDLINE users. Search results include microscopic organisms, photographs and X-rays of the body, vintage health posters, and images of public health professionals in action. Many images date to the early 20th century.” – Choice

“Begun in 1969 as a committee against health fraud, Quackwatch (so named in 1997) is a nonprofit corporation with the stated purpose of combating "health related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies and misconduct." Articles on questionable health fads and claims frequently cite Quackwatch and its founder/contributor, retired psychiatrist Stephen Barrett.” – Choice

“Trust for America's Health (TFAH) is a "non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority." Its Web site's statistics, reports, and other information seem to be of high quality and accuracy, although there is no definitive citation of sources for the information presented, particularly the statistics.” – Choice

"Managed by the USDHHS, this Web site is a self-proclaimed one-stop access point for avian and pandemic flu information. The site delivers what it promises. It is designed for various levels of users seeking information and statistics on past and potential flu outbreaks. Well organized and easy to navigate, the site offers up-to-date information on resources and disaster planning tools and strategies, as well as listings of meetings and conferences held internationally." -- Choice

“SAMHSA directs federal efforts and funding to improve the lives of persons with, or at risk for, substance abuse or mental disorders. Its Web site is a valuable resource for health educators, students, researchers seeking grants, and the public, though knowledge of agency jargon is sometimes necessary; for example, the 11 program priority areas (under The SAMSHA Matrix) lead to documents replete with acronyms of federal initiatives.” – Choice

“The US Food and Drug Administration's mission is to protect and advance public health by assuring the safety of food, medical devices, and medicine, and to provide health- and product-related information to the public. This broad mission is reflected in a sprawling Web site that contains information aimed at consumers, educators and students, and medical and industry professionals. For students, educators, and consumers, the site's search engine, A-Z List, and well-organized site map adequately point the way to authoritative, useful resources. The Hot Topics section covers current health-related issues of interest to undergraduates, such as gene therapy, medical marijuana, hurricanes, and cell phone safety. FDA & You, an online newsletter for health educators and students, includes sample lesson plans, articles, and links to outside resources.” – Choice

"The Bad Bug Book is a component of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Web site. The index page is organized into sections of links titled Pathogenic Bacteria, Enterovirulent Escherichia Coli Group (EEC Group), Parasitic Protozoa and Worms, Viruses, Natural Toxins, Other Pathogenic Agents, and Appendices. Each link connects to a description (called a chapter) of the activities of a pathogenic organism or toxin. The intent is to provide basic facts about these organisms and toxins, including their characteristics, source, associated foods, infective dose, disease symptoms and complications, outbreaks, and susceptible populations." -- Choice

"The US National Library of Medicine (NLM) developed The Visible Human Project (VHP) during the 1990s to provide cross-sectional image data for a male and a female cadaver using three modalities: computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR), and cryosectioning. This site offers access to the data set, licenses, and various software applications for viewing images." -- Choice

"London's Wellcome Library holds one of the world's premier collections in the history of medicine, broadly interpreted to include such subjects as alchemy, witchcraft, and ethnography as well as modern medical literature. The Web site furnishes access to a vast range of materials, including books, journals, manuscripts, films, and paintings." -- Choice

About the Library            CECybrary        Online Catalog        Resources by Subject     Homepage

Briarcliffe College Library