Education & Self-Management Tools

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of health information available on the Internet. On this page, we have included a few links to external resources for patient education and self-management to assist you.

Medline Plus is a good one-stop-shop for basic health information. This site includes a medical encyclopedia to look up tricky words, information on hundreds of prescriptions by brand name, and links to doctors, hospitals and medical libraries across the country.

When it comes to current health advisories and disease outbreaks, as well as an abundance of health information, one of the best starting places is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) Foundation through Health Tips has created an easy to understand guide about a variety of health topics including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression, hypertension, smoking and vaccine information. Information is available in printable one-page forms in English and Spanish allowing you to fill it out and take it to your doctor’s appointment.

WebMD is a reliable standby in the online medical universe. The site offers much of the same general information as the government sites mentioned above, but its style may be friendlier to Web surfers who don’t normally browse government sites.

Healthfinder.gov managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also has a variety of health topics and general information.

For disease-specific health information, national associations provide valuable information, including the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and Alzheimer’s Foundation.

For a quick online rundown on a condition, the National Institutes of Health Website might be the best place to start searching. This site allows you to search for information on a condition by its location in the body, the disease name, or by health issues such as smoking or weight gain.