Do these people really know what they’re talking about?

One of our clients, Dr. Cliff Dasco, a physician at The Methodist Hospital and Director of the Abramson Center For The Future of Health, always says his worst nightmare is when a patient comes into his office with information found exclusively on the Web.

I have to confess, I love searching the Internet for information on the latest health craze or my own ailments. However, I always have to remember that a lot of the health information out there is not based on anything more than personal opinion or the opinion of the site’s sponsors. If there’s anything I learned in the past five years it’s that medical and health studies and articles can be easily manipulated and biased. Non peer-reviewed health information is even more prone to inaccuracies.

So how DO I find out if a health site is credible?

My recommendation–go to HealthRatings.org. This site is a joint project of Consumer Reports, Web Watch, and the Health Improvement Institute.

HealthRatings.org uses strict methodology to test the credibility of frequently visited health sites. I’m all about the strict methodology. Check out the results for 2007 and learn about the strengths, weaknesses, and scientific adequacy of the top 20 most visited sites for health information.

Some popular sites that are “excellent.”

According to the latest consumer reports, the following websites were rated as “excellent” resources for health information.

• National Institutes of Health
• MedicineNet.com
• MayoClinic.com
• Drugs.com
• Aetna InteliHealth
• KidsHealth

Some sites you may not know about.

I do a lot of surfing the web for health information. Credible and sometimes unusual health information, that is. The following are a few sites I thought I would share with you. Some are informative, some are just cool. You won’t find any of these on the top 20 most visited list!

1. HealthLEADER is an online wellness magazine, edited by my friend Karen Krakower at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Topics range from “7 Questions Parents Ask Pediatricians” to “Blood Pressure 101.” Karen does a great job of researching all of her stories and giving her readers something of interest every issue.
2. MyPyramid.gov is a site created by the USDA and offers personalized eating plans and interactive tools based on the newly updated food pyramid. Our parent company, Archimage, Inc., is in the process of updating one of these sites for the USDA campaign Eat Smart. Play Hard.. More details to come in future posts.
3. American Academy of Pediatrics website is a great spot for parents who have questions related to their child’s health…and want their answers backed by an organization of over 60K pediatricians. There is also an online bookstore which you should check out.
4. Discovery Health allows you to browse upcoming TV shows about your favorite health topics. Love watching those open heart surgeries!
5. HealthVault is still in it’s beta stage but holds great promise in my opinion. It is designed to help you collect, store, and share your personal health information.
6. MDKiosk is a site that aims to improve the quality of patient health education by offering a multimedia alternative to text-based health information. It has over 400 videos on topics ranging from music therapy to how to explain to your child what a trip to the hospital is like. One of the contributors is also a friend of mine from graduate school, Dr. Kevin Hwang, Assistant Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
7. BodyByMilk.com is not exactly a wealth of health resources, but it is a pretty decent site for tweens as far as health sites go. These are hard to find you know. I like it for the featured artists…and free mp3 downloads!
8. CDC.gov is my all time favorite site to find all things health-related. Must be the public health in me.

Have any others to add to the list?