MedlinePlus is a free Web site that provides consumer health information for patients, families, and health care providers. MedlinePlus brings together quality information from the United States National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations. The U.S. National Library of Medicine produces and maintains MedlinePlus.
MedlinePlus launched in 1998, providing the public with access to a selective and reliable collection of consumer health information on the Web. The site is updated daily. Materials in MedlinePlus must meet rigorous quality guidelines before they appear on the site. There is no advertising on the site, and MedlinePlus does not endorse companies or products.
MedlinePlus includes a companion site, MedlinePlus en español, which offers similar content for the Spanish-speaking community. Each year, over 125 million people from around the world use MedlinePlus.
MedlinePlus contains:
- Health topics and a medical encyclopedia covering hundreds of diseases, conditions, and wellness issues
- Drug information for both generic and brand-name prescription and over-the-counter medications
- Herbal and dietary supplement information
- A medical dictionary
- Health news articles from Reuters Health Information and HealthDay, plus press releases from major medical organizations
- Directories of physicians, dentists, hospitals, clinics, and other health care providers
- Videos of surgical procedures
- Interactive health tutorials that use animations and sound to explain conditions and procedures
- An interactive medical words tutorial
The MedlinePlus partner site, Go Local, links users from the health information in MedlinePlus to health services in their local communities.
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History
Throughout its history, the National Library of Medicine traditionally focused its programs and services on health care professionals. During the late 1990s, the Library recognized that the general public was becoming a very important user group, due to the increasing availability of Internet access. [1] This new user group needed access to reliable health information in a consumer-friendly, Web-based format,[2] and the National Library of Medicine sought to meet this need with the introduction of MedlinePlus in October 1998.
MedlinePlus debuted with 22 English-language health topics. Today, MedlinePlus has grown to approximately 800 health topics in English and Spanish and also includes links to health information in over 40 other languages.
Since its inception, MedlinePlus has received numerous awards and media recognition for its quality and usefulness to the public, and the site continually scores highly in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).
Notes
- ^ Miller N, Lacroix EM, Backus J. MEDLINEplus: building and maintaining the National Library of Medicine's consumer health Web service. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association [Internet]. 2000 Jan [cited 2009 May 26];88(1):11-7. Available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=35193
- ^ Marill JL, Miller N, Kitendaugh P. The MedlinePlus public user interface: studies of design challenges and opportunities. Journal of the Medical Library Association [Internet]. 2006 Jan. [cited 2009 May 26];94(1):30-40. Available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1324769
References
- Miller N, Lacroix EM, Backus J. The making of Medlineplus. Public Libraries. 2001 Mar-Apr;40(2):111-3.
- Miller N, Tyler RJ, Backus JEB. MedlinePlus: The National Library of Medicine brings quality information to health consumers. Library Trends [Internet]. 2004 Fall[cited 2009 Jun 8];53(2):375-88. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/staffpubs/lo/LibraryTrends_fall2004.pdf
External links
- MedlinePlus: [1] http://medlineplus.gov/
- MedlinePlus en español: [2] http://medlineplus.gov/spanish/
- MedlinePlus Quality Guidelines: [3] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html
- Articles about MedlinePlus: [4] http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bibliography.html
Open source encyclopedia content modification information:
This page was last modified on 21 January 2010 at 15:43.
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Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "MedlinePlus", which is available in its original form here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MedlinePlus
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