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: #1236576 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 has written about healthcare for nearly 30 years for publications and Web sites such as WebMD, OnHealth.com, American Health, and The Lancet. He was the health reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times for 15 years, where he currently covers technology subjects. He also teaches medical writing at the University of Chicago. His coverage of health issues has won him awards from numerous groups including the National Press Club, the American Heart Association, and the Arthritis Foundation. Wolinsky holds masters and bachelors degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Judi Wolinsky was in the right place at the right time. She was a graduate student in libraryscience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, when Mosaic, the first Internetgraphic browser, was introduced there. The Internet changed everything for her -- and foreveryone else.
She's now head of reference services at the Homewood (Illinois) Public Library, where she andher able staff use the Net and old-fashioned print resources to find the answers to their patrons' questions.

Customer Reviews

Good source, but missing the key...
I found that this book had a great many resources online for finding physicians within particular specialties (i.e. one site for radiology doctors, one site for cardiology doctors, etc), but did not have mention of any sites that put all specialties and regions together. One such site to find a doctor is http://www.appointmentnet.com, or even WebMD... although Appointment Net has the easiest search for finding doctors, and even allows you to make appointments and renew prescriptions online.

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.

Invaluable Guide
The web is like the Tower of Babble - jammed with information but difficult to sort out. This book is an invaluable guide to the many, often confusing, sources of online health information. Buy it. Use it. Profit from it.