Host: Rhonda Feiman
Co-producer: Petra Hall
Engineer: John Greenman

Program Topic: Searching for helpful and accurate medical & health care information on the internet.

Key Discussion Points:
a) How can the internet be helpful- or detrimental- in seeking out medical & health information?
b) How can you determine if you are at a legitimate website?
c) What guidelines should you be aware of, in evaluating websites?
d) How can you tell who created the website, where the website originated from, and whether it is a neutral source of information- or it exists to sell products?
f) What are the names of some reliable medical information websites?
g) How can medical libraries & librarians be helpful, in finding health & medical information?

Guests:
Christine Fleuriel, Medical Librarian
Chris Fleuriel and her colleague, Susan Bloomfield, contributed to the Healthy Maine supplement of the Portland Press Herald in June 2016, with an article entitled “Look up medical info on line- but carefully.”
www.pressherald.com/2016/06/12/look-up-medical-info-online-but-carefully/

Websites of interest:
The Medical Library Association publishes a list of Top Health Websites and it can be found at www.mlanet.org/p/cm/ld/fid=397.
MedlinePlus, medlineplus.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, is an outstanding, comprehensive source of reliable health information.
Another source of excellent, vetted health care information may be found at
libraries.maine.edu/mainedatabases/topic.asp?topic=Health This is MARVEL! Maine’s Virtual Library. One of the many useful databases included is “Health Source: Consumer Edition.” MARVEL can be accessed at any library or at home.
PubMed: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
Senior Health: nihseniorhealth.gov
Veterans’ Resources: www.myhealth.va.gov and www.veteranshealthlibrary.org

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