Reliable Sources to Learn About Healthcare

Introduction

Who reads the books in the 21st century? Something that sounds offensive but is not. To be honest with you, no one is going to bother with books, when they can learn about stuff by just touching a few icons on their smartphones. The real debate in our opinion is not about the usefulness of the resource, rather, it is about the authenticity of the resource. For example, online healthcare resources are increasing with every day passing. But as you might be familiar with the thing yourself, half of these health articles are nothing but clickbait. Let us ask you something. Can you name five reliable sources to learn about healthcare for us? Well, if you can’t, here is something that you should read with great attention till the very end! In this discussion, we are going to talk about the 5 reliable sources to learn about healthcare features of a quality healthcare database, as well as mention five of them!

Questions that you must ask

But before we jump into the details of the reliable sources, we must discuss what makes them reliable in the first place. In short, which features are indicative of its reliability? Start with the address, if it is a .gov address, it is a state-run website. Those are reliable almost all the time. On the other hand, .edu identifies an educational institute website. Then, search for the author of the article. This is usually listed at the very top or the very end of the webpage. Reliable healthcare resources mention an author’s credentials, qualifications, and some sort of contact information. Also, the year in which the article was written is of great significance, since it allows one to guess its relevancy in the current time. Exploring the site wouldn’t be a bad idea either since it would allow you to guess the purpose with which the website was created! 

Go to resource

Now, we decided to categorize these reliable sources based on the content they furnish. Let us start with a healthcare resource that you should consult for any healthcare issue that pops into your mind. We think MedlinePlus should be your overall health information database. This is a resource that is managed by NIH USA. NIH refers to the National Institute of Health, and the major role in the maintenance of MedlinePlus is played by its National Library of Medicine. Here, you are guaranteed access to information that is backed by scientifically proven data. The biggest relief though is the absence of any ads from the website. And do you know why there are no ads? Because it is managed using tax money from Americans!

Drug information resource

DailyMed is one of the finest healthcare resources in America, its popularity highest among the diet freaks. However, that is not what makes this healthcare database so special. NO. The special bit about Medline is that its stream of information is coming from the Food & Drug Administration i.e. FDA. Now it must be making sense to you why we have recommended this resource as the best one for drugs and medicines. Your chances of popping something unsafe are minimum if you are relying on the data provided by Medline. And again, here is a resource that is not flooded by ads either since it is managed by the tax money.

Best for procedures

There are fortunate and unfortunate times in your life when you or your family members have prescribed surgery of some sort. Other times, it is some sort of invasive test that you have never heard about in your life. What do you do for getting information about that procedure? Well, you can always go to Mayo Clinic. It is one of the leading institutes in the world of medicine, and we are sure that the information you will read about at this prestigious site is one hundred percent accurate as well. Admittedly, the articles and discussions at Mayo Clinic are a bit complicated. But that is good as well since the information is detailed and covers all the aspects of a surgical procedure. One more reliable resource of similar nature is John Hopkins. So, your surgeries are all taken care of! 

Diet specific resource

We have mentioned the FDA supervised DailyMed already, but that is more for drugs. However, this one that we are going to talk about in this section is an invaluable resource as far as the information about vitamins and supplements is concerned. We are talking about the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Sounds a little anticlimactic but in reality, it is perhaps, the world’s most trusted database about supplements. And the data provided is well backed and cited. It is not just some random information! 

Latest research

In case your interests are more specific in nature, you might want to read about one particular topic in detail. And once you have exhausted all the available literature, you will be craving for more naturally. And that is where resources like NCBI, PubMed, and Nature can come in handy. There is research happening every day in this world focus. These journals allow you to stay in touch with all the latest developments and discoveries in any healthcare field that you might be interested in. There is a never-ending pool of knowledge waiting for you! And in our opinion, that is where a website triumphs a book in a library. When two resources are compared, the former is more easily accessible and popular.

Conclusion – Reliable Sources to Learn About Healthcare

Well, folks, that would be all for now. Access to accurate information is a fundamental right of every human, no one deserves to be lied to or deceived. Healthcare issues are serious business, these cannot be taken lightly. Hence, the need to maintain accurate and reliable healthcare databases is greater than ever. The pool of knowledge is greater than ever, managing it is a challenge. Some good work has been done by organizations like WHO but more needs to be done for a safe future!