Links to Other Websites
Health information on the internet guidance
There is a vast amount of medical information on the Internet. Finding the right information for you can be difficult. Using a search engine, such as Google, will often bring up thousands of Internet sites. These sites will be of variable quality and, for the non-medically qualified person, trying to distinguish the good quality information the rest, can be difficult.
How can you distinguish the useful from the not so useful information?
As a rule of thumb, medical information published by governments, the NHS, professional societies, and large medical charities can usually be trusted. Smaller sites may also be useful but often do not have the resources to check all the information they publish and keep it up to date. This is why on our practice's website, although we do publish some medical information, we advise our patients to use our Medical Links to find the information they want.
- Review more than one site and attempt to obtain a balanced view
- Check for the authors' names and qualifications - anonymous information is less likely to be sourced accurately
- Use sites that are regularly updated
- Be aware that advertising might influence the site contents - check for commercial sponsorship
- Avoid online consultations and diagnoses
- Information sourced from outside the UK might describe treatments not available here
Beware of sites that may have a commercial bias, i.e. aim to make money out of you by selling a particular product or service. They often have "gushing" endorsements, having patient histories that you may easily identify with and may not be obvious to spot. They can also have names to make them sound like a reputable organisation.
Not every one can make sense of the information they obtain. Some patients will need their doctors, nurses and therapists to advise them about their health. We will be happy to discuss your particular concerns with you in your consultation with us. We may not have the time to go through long internet printouts but can look at selective information; we do have a limited amount of time in a consultation. With sensible use of the Internet, we can greatly increase both doctors' and patients' knowledge about medical issues, and encourage greater participation among patients in decisions about their health care.
To help you locate high quality medical information we have listed some medical Internet sites below:
Please be patient as the websites are checked and the links get added!
DIRECTORY OF OTHER HEALTH RELATED WEBSITES FROM PATIENT UK - A really useful directory of numerous health related websites. A good starting point for researching health related information on the web.
Asthma UK
Arthritis Research Campaign - Link to patient information on a range of conditions
BBC Health Website
Breast Cancer Campaign
British Liver Trust
British Diabetes Association
British Epilepsy Association
British Heart Foundation
Bullying UK
CancerBACUP
Childhood Immunisations
Coeliac Society
Cruse Bereavement - Help in dealing with a bereavement
Eat Well - Healthy eating advice from the Food Standards Agency
Embarrassing Problems
Family Heart Association - Cholesterol advice
Family Planning Association
Healthy Living
Help the Aged
Lab Tests Online UK
Macmillan Cancer Relief
Marie Curie Cancer Care
MIND
National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease
National Asthma Campaign
National Childbirth Trust
National Eczema Society
Net Doctor
NHS Direct
NHS Health Encyclopaedia
Osteoporosis
Patient UK - A good source for patient information leaflets
Royal National Institute for Deaf People
Samaritans
Smoking - help in stopping
Stroke Association
Student Health
Surgery Door
Teenage Health Freak