INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE CONSUMERS
What Is Medical & Health Informatics?
Medical & Health Informatics is sometimes described as "computers in medicine." More correctly, it concerns the use of medical and health information. What interests me most is "Consumer Health Informatics." This concerns providing information to healthcare consumers.
One way to provide information to healthcare consumers is through the Internet.  For more infoarmation, seeThese professional articles available on the Internet:
Setting the Public Agenda for Online Health Search
Internet-Based Patient Self-Care
Evidence-Based Medicine for Consumers
Evidence-Based Patient Choice & Consumer Health Informatics
One new trend in healthcare holds that patients should have coequal partnership with doctors in making treatment decisions. This requires patients to learn about their conditions and treatments. A well-informed patient often  knows more about his or her condition than most doctors! Remember, doctors must know many different illnesses. The explosion of information makes it difficult for them to keep up to date on all of them. For fuller discussion, see:

Consumer Informatics Supporting Patients as Co-Producers of Quality
Also, there are areas of healthcare not well presented by other media: medical mishaps, quackery, fraud, malpractice. Healthcare consumers need to be aware of these.
For more information on medical quackery, visit
QUACKWATCH
Other websites of interest to the cautious healthcare consumer:
The Cochrane Library
National Council Against Health Fraud
Health on the Net Foundation
Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health
Journal of Medical Internet Research
HealthGrades
Federation of State Medical Boards
Evidence Based Medicine
Evidence Based Healthcare
What do you think healthcare consumers need most from health websites?
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