The “Big Three” Consumer Health Sites and Web Technology Trends: MedlinePlus®, Healthfinder®, and CAPHIS
Authors:
Kay Hogan Smith - Kay Hogan Smith (khogan@uab.edu) is Community Services Librarian, UAB Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, LHL 157, 1530 3rd Avenue South, Birmingham, AL 35294-0013.a;
Susan Mayer - Susan Mayer, MLIS (Mayer.Susan@mayo.edu) is Patient Education Specialist, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905.b
| Affiliations: | a UAB Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, Birmingham, Alabama, USA |
| b Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
DOI:
10.1080/15398280903119705
Publication Frequency:
4 issues per year
Published in:
Journal of Consumer Health On the Internet,
Volume
13,
Issue
3
July
2009
, pages 213
- 222
Formats available:
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(English)
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PDF
(English)
Also incorporating: Health Care on the Internet
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Abstract
The increasing application of the newest Web technologies to health information sites such as Revolution Health and IndivoHealth as well as patient-focused blogs and wikis brings greater patient participation into the traditionally static equation of health information-seeking on the Internet. Health-related Web sites are currently offering features that allow consumers to interact with each other and medical professionals, display and store their medical data, and obtain current biomedical research. What do all these new developments portend for those long-standing dependable Web sites such as MedlinePlus®? This article examines the history, current status, and potential for three sites, the National Library of Medicine's MedlinePlus, the Medical Library Association's Consumer and Patient Health Information Section's CAPHIS site, and Healthfinder®, in the context of the emerging importance of the newer social networking tools for consumer health information-seeking and decision making. The focus is on the inquiries produced at this transitional period of online health information. The purpose is to stimulate thought and debate.
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| Keywords: CAPHIS Top 100 List; consumer health information; health information seeking; Healthfinder.gov; MedlinePlus®; Web 2.0 |
| view references (27) |

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