Government

Health Databases

Databases General Health and Science
 

MEDLINEplus, and PubMed are databases created by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. They contain information relevant to health, medicine, biomedicine, behavioral sciences, bioengineering, general science, chemistry, life sciences, and many other related subjects including policy development in these areas. These databases index over 4,570 journal titles as well as newspapers. They are updated weekly. Because these databases are organized and cataloged using a very controlled vocabulary (Medical Subject headings) it may be necessary to seek the assistance of a librarian. If you have difficulty finding relevant information please contact me, Jacalyn Spoon, for assistance [email protected].


MEDLINEPlus www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus Provides consumer health, drug information, dictionaries and more. Provided by the National Institutes of Health this is a terrific health database and is a great place to begin your research. Health information is available also available in Spanish at MEDLINEplus.

"MEDLINEplus will direct you to information to help answer health questions. MEDLINEplus brings together, by health topic, authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other government, non-profit and other health-related organizations. Preformulated MEDLINE searches are included in MEDLINEplus and give easy access to the medical research literature. It also provides you with a database of full-text drug information and an illustrated medical encyclopedia" (MEDLINEplus).

MEDLINEplus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorial.html  Interactive Health Tutorials provided by the National Institutes of Health. Try an informative tutorial to learn new health information.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ under the authority of the National Institute of Health, and the National Library of Medicine, contains journals and other resources.

Top

National Institute of Health www.nih.gov/health/consumer online consumer health information, NIH publications.

Healthfinder www.healthfinder.gov was developed by the Department of Health and Human Services Provides access to Online Publications and links to support groups and non-profit organizations that produce health information. A terrific self help guide to consumer health information.


National Library of Medicine, www.nlm.nih.gov under the authority of the National Institute of Health Links to many government sponsored Web sites.
 

Washington District of Columbia Department of Health http://www.dchealth.dc.gov/index.asp under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health provides several interesting health links including rodent control, West Nile virus and environmental health.

Science.gov http://www.science.gov/ A general science database which may be helpful in your quest for information resources. science.gov was created by the collected efforts of 14 scientific and technical information organizations from 10 major U.S. government science agencies. Together these agencies make up the science.gov Alliance.
 

Healthy People 2010 http://www.healthypeople.gov/ is provided by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Also available for sale from the government printing office bookstore as Healthy people 2010 : understanding and improving health. [2000] Healthy People 2010 (Group) HE 20.2:P 39/4. is available online at http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/tableofcontents.htm. This is a depository item.

    Healthy people 2010 is a health care and education initiative. May useful links can be found at the web site, including online checkups an alphabetical subject list of health quizzes to test your knowledge and health. A link to toll free health information phone numbers is also available http://www.health.gov/NHIC/Pubs/tollfree.htm 

Top
 

Women's Health

National Women's Health Information Center http://www.4women.gov/ is a service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Women's Health http://www.cdc.gov/health/womensmenu.htm under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Serivces Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

Office of Women's Health http://www.fda.gov/womens/default.htm  "The mission of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Women's Health (OWH) is to serve as a champion for women's health both within and outside the agency.
 

Women's Health Initiative http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/index.html (National Institutes of Health-- one of the largest preventive studies of its kind in the United States, the WHI will focus on the major causes of death, disability and frailty in postmenopausal women.)

Top
 

Seniors and Aging
 

FirstGov for Seniors www.seniors.gov/health.html Provided by FirstGov a terrific first resource provides information and links of interest to Seniors.

U.S. Administration on Aging  www.aoa.gov provided by the Department of Health and Human Services site contains links to governement information and events as well as links to many other organizations and government health resources, information available in several languages.

NIH Senior Health http://nihseniorhealth.gov/index.html under the authority of the National Institute of Health provides valuable information for older adults.

Exercise for older adults www.nihseniorhealth.gov/exercise/toc.html under the authority of the National Institute of Health provides exercises and information about starting an exercise routine.

National Institute on aging http://www.nia.nih.gov/ under the authority of the National Institute of Health contains research and health information.

Top
 

Preventive and General Health

Exercise for older adults www.nihseniorhealth.gov/exercise/toc.html under the authority of the National Institute of Health provides exercises and information about starting an exercise routine.

Locating Health and Medical Information, Science reference guide no. 34 www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/SciRefGuides/medicalinfo.html is terrific list of books and web sites. Compiled by Stephanie Marcus of the  library of congress it can be used for locating health and medical information. Last revised March 2002.

The Office of Public Health and Science http://www.osophs.dhhs.gov/ophs/ The Office of Public Health and Science, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides links to other U.S. Government Health related offices including the Surgeon General www.surgeongeneral.gov/sgoffice.htm  and the Office on Women's Health http://www.4woman.gov/owh/index.htm

Tompkins County Public Library http://www.tcpl.org/Health/index.html Health Information Center may provide links to local information.

Organ Donors http://www.organdonor.gov/ under the authority of the U.S. department of Health and Human Services Provides information and resources on organ donation and transplantation issues.

Office of Minority Health http://www.omhrc.gov/ a branch off the U.S. Health and Human Services Department

    Health links provided by the Office of Minority Health http://www.omhrc.gov/OMH/sidebar/healthlinks.htm

    Federal clearing house links by subject http://www.omhrc.gov/OMH/sidebar/fedclear.htm provided by the Office of Minority Health

Top

Drug Information

Drug Information  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginformation.html provided by the National Instituted of Health through MEDLINEplus

Food and Drug Administration http://www.fda.gov/default.htm under the authority of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services includes information about medical devises as well as medications and other goodies such as recalls and new FDA approvals.

Top
 

Insurance Agencies
Social Security, Medicade, Medicare, etc.

Social Security Administration http://www.ssa.gov/ Provides links to benefit program information including: retirement, disability, medicare, supplemental security income, survivors benefits.s

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services http://cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/default.asp provide access to insurance services beyond just Medicare and Medicaid.

        Link directly to Medicaid information http://cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/ found on the above site.

        Link directly to Medicare information http://cms.hhs.gov/medicare/ found at the above site.

The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs http://www.dol.gov/esa/owcp_org.htm under the authority of the U.S. Department of Labor administers disability compensation programs; benefits include wage replacement, medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation. The web site provides regulatory, statutory and customer assistance information on workers' compensation.

See also Veterans benefits

Top

Veterans
 
 

Department of Veterans Affairs http://www.va.gov/ VA Medical Center Alexandria LA 
The home page of the VA includes: online health forms, benefits, and links to consumer health information http://www.va.gov/health_benefits/page.cfm?pg=7 as well as many others.

Veterans Administration Medical Library www.alexandria.med.va.gov/index.html
 

**New frames open as the page is explored. Remember to close fames as you no longer need them this will help your computer function more efficiently.** 

Health Education Library for Patients Veterans Administration San Francisco  http://www.sf.med.va.gov/patlib/SpecificGroups.htm includes lots of links.

Top
 

Mental Health

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality http://www.ahrq.gov provides a terrific link to mental health issues available at

www.ahcpr.gov/research/mentalix.htm.

Top

Cancer
 

National Cancer Institute http://www.cancer.gov provided by the National Institutes of Health

Cancer Dictionary  http://www.cancer.gov/dictionary/ Provided by the National Cancer Institute through the National Institutes of Health.

News from the National Cancer Institute. Produced by the National Cancer Institute it is a Quarterly publication

HE 20.3161/2:, it is a depository item. 

News Center http://cancer.gov/newscenter is an internet news letter produced by the National Cancer Institute available on the NCI web site, updated regularly.

Top

Encyclopedias etc.

Use a medical encyclopedia to define a word, find a description, complications, signs and symptoms, causes of a condition, disease or medication.

Medical Encyclopedia http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html provided by the National Institute of Health available through MEDLINEplus.

National Library of Medicine can provide alternative Medical subject search terms http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html.

Use the NLM medical subject search terms to design alternative search stratedies.

Example: Cancer as a search term may be better searched with a more precise term such as Neoplasms.

Medical Dictionary http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mplusdictionary.html Provided by the National Institutes of Health, available through MEDLINE plus. This dictionary will define a word, check your spelling, offers hot links to synonyms and  other descriptive resources including pronunciation.
 

Medical Directory  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/directories.html Provided by the National Institutes of Health available via MEDLINEplus, Find a doctor, surgeon, dentist or other medical specialist. Find a contact information for an organization or a web page.

Cancer Dictionary  http://www.cancer.gov/dictionary/ Provided by the National Cancer Institute through the National Institutes of Health.

Top
 

Helpful Hints

To change the font on this page, try holding down your Control key down wile pressing your + or - key.

**Sometimes new frames or web pages open as a page is explored. Remember to close fames as you no longer need them this will help your computer function more efficiently.** 

The information resources contained on this page are government sponsored and hosted only. Many other information sources exist that may have valuable information. It is important to evaluate information resources. Not everything you find on the Internet (or World Wide Web) is a good value. Anyone can publish a web site. Not all web sites are reviewed by persons of authority. Consult your doctor or pharmacist to verify health information found in a web site.

United States Government web sites generally end in or contain .gov . New York State sponsored web sites often contain .ny . Other government sponsored web sites may have the initials of that government for example Canadian sites contain .ca, Swedish .se . University sponsored web sites usually contain .edu . Organization sponsored web sites .org . Network sponsored web sites .net .

Examples:
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus This address uses www. (World Wide Web) nlm. (National Library of Medicine) .nih. (National Institute of Health) .gov (U.S. Government) / (The end) medline (the name of the web page is medline)

www.healthlit.org This address uses www. (World Wide Web) healthlit (a site dedicated to health literature) .org (an Organization)
 Healthy People 2010 Library Initiative provides links to other health web sites.

http://hobbspublib.leaco.net/
 New Mexico Public Library's Web site Provides links to other health web sites.
 

Top

I cannot find what I need

Because many of these databases are organized and cataloged using a very controlled vocabulary (Medical Subject headings) it may be necessary to seek the assistance of a librarian. You may want to try searching the National Library of Medicine subject headings for new search terms. If you have difficulty finding relevant information please contact me, Jacalyn Spoon, for assistance [email protected]. I promise that any personal information you share with me will be kept confidential.
 

To Obtain Government Information available only in paper visit  the Groton Public Library

Online at http://www.flls.org/memberpages/groton.htm

or in person

112 E Cortland St.
Groton, NY 13073
(607) 898-5055

or

Use Mail-It services provided by the Finger Lakes Library System  http://www.flls.org/outreach/mailit.htm.

Mail-It will bring the item you wish to use to your door.

Contact Me

This Pathfinder is provided by the recommendation of the Healthy People 2010 Library Initiative.

Created by Jacalyn C. Spoon a 20 year library professional and University at Buffalo Library Studies Masters Degree Program Student

Latest revision April 20, 2003. If you would like to submit a relevant web site, book title or make a recommendation please contact me at [email protected]

Top