Product Description

Healthcare Online For Dummies empowers you to search the vast, sometimes confusing, resources of the Internet and find the medical information you need. The Internet and this book won't replace doctors, but Healthcare Online For Dummies will enable you to become an informed partner with your healthcare provider. This book includes sections on online search techniques, wellness, and major illnesses. An extensive directory of health and medical sites lists many of the best sites the Web has to offer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #485409 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

From Library Journal
This engaging, well-written book would be useful for public and school library collections if the authors had followed their excellent recommendations for evaluating health web sites before recommending them to the general reader. This couple a news reporter on health and technology and a public librarian have the right combination of credentials for the topic. The trademark DummiesR combination of a friendly writing style, cartoons, and use of small icons for highlighting purposes provides an engaging book that could assist readers who need health information but are reluctant to use the Internet. Unfortunately, by recommending Yahoo! Health as "the best place to start your journey of alternative healing," the authors forget to note that sites linked from Yahoo! are not evaluated. At the very least, they should have used their "Warning" icon for this recommendation. In addition, when discussing MEDLINE, they give the web address for Internet Grateful Med (IGM) instead of PubMed (www.pubmed.gov). Yet the National Library of Medicine announced the demise of IGM well over a year ago; it was retired in September 2001. Libraries do not need to buy this book; patrons would be better served by a recommendation to visit www.medlineplus.org and other authoritative subject directories listed on the Medical Library Association web site (www.mlanet.org). Margaret Allen, Library Consultant, Stratford, WI
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher
There's lots of great healthcare information on the Web. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to tell the experts from the quacks--which is why you need this friendly guide. From online support groups to the latest information on drug interactions and clinical research trials, Healthcare Online For Dummies shows you step-by-step how to zero in on the facts you need.

About the Author
HOWARD WOLINSKY covered healthcare for the Chicago Sun-Times, breaking major local and national stories for 15 years. The National Press Club, the Associated Press Managing Editors, the American Public Health Association, the American Bar Association, and Mental Health Association have recognized his work.

Following exposes they wrote for the Sun-Times on the American Medical Association, Wolinsky and former Sun-Times reporter Tom Brune wrote the book, The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association.

In 1994, the Internet bug, which Howard’s wife and co-author Judi brought home from graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, bit Howard. Five years ago, he switched to covering the Net and tech for the Sun-Times.

Wolinsky was a journalist-in-residence at the University of Michigan, where he studied medical ethics, medical economics, and other medical topics. He received M.S. and B.S. degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

JUDI WOLINSKY was a graduate student in library science at the University of Illinois, when Mosaic, the first Internet graphic browser, was introduced there. The Internet changed everything for her--and for everyone else.

She’s now head of reference services at the Homewood (Illinois) Public Library, where she and her able staff, use the Net and old-fashioned print resources to find the answers to their patrons’ questions.

Wolinsky manages the library’s Web site. She also teaches a class in Internet searching for librarians at the Suburban Library System. She has spoken at the Internet Librarian conference and written for the journal, Public Libraries.

Customer Reviews

A Premier Source Book
Healthcare for Dummies validates the Internet as a research tool. It provides qualified healthcare sources with which to help ourselves, our families and friends.
I needed immediate information to help my mother cope with my Father who has Alzheimer's. I not only found organizations with information on Alzheimer's, but sources for my Mother (the caregiver) to contact for guidance and assistance.
Healthcare is rarely one issue. This guide can assist in the search for information on conditions, treatments as well as insurance and life stage issues -- all available on the Internet.

A roadmap for the on-line healthcare superhighway!
As the Web gets bigger (and often crazier,) there's a greater and greater need to be able to separate the "signal" from the "noise," the truth from the false. This is especially difficult when you get into the area of health care -- which is, often, an art form, not a hard and fast science. The Wolinskys make incredible sense. "Whether in an emergency or a non-emergency situation, nothing, not even Internet technology can replace that old-fashioned, hands-on, in-person doctor-patient relationship. Nothing." This is just one sentence from one chapter, yet it represents the attitude of the Wolinskys -- whether they are explaining how to find a doctor or a hospital, buying medicines or trying alternative medicines, infants, kids, teens, women's, senior's health care --no matter. This book provides the healthcare sense and sensibilities so desperately needed today.

The most helpful and reliable source I've found!
When I was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and spent a lot of time researching the disease and its treatment, "Healthcare Online" was exactly the kind of book I needed but didn't have. It's clear and easy-to-use, though quite sophsticated in its research assistance, and very, very helpful in providing ways to separate out the valid information from the misleading or phony stuff. In the areas I researched intensively, it lists all the sources I eventually found for myself, plus some very useful sites I never discovered. I often counsel newly-diagnosed individuals with my disease and now will pass on this book as a gold mine for their own inquiries.