Consumer Health

The Consumer Health Page is a Charlottesville Community Web resource maintained by the University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. It is intended to aid the health consumer in locating information on medical conditions and available treatment.

How Do I Find Information on Diseases, Conditions, and Treatments?

  • MEDLINEplus®
    Web site produced by the National Library of Medicine. Search the database or click on the alphabetical arrangement of topics.
  • MayoClinic.com
    Mayo Clinic Web page with a search engine to retrieve information on medical conditions.
  • Informed Health Online
    An evidence-based consumer and patient health site developed by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care.
  • Intellihealth
    Featuring Harvard Medical School's consumer health information. Information on symptoms and treatments, journal databases, a medical dictionary, FAQs, and more.
  • Healthy Roads Media
    Provides easy to understand health information in varied formats and multiple languages.
  • Lab Tests Online
    The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) developed this site as a single resource specific to clinical lab tests and the topics that relate to them.
  • Merck Manual-Home Edition
    Full access to the contents of the consumer-oriented edition of this trusted medical textbook. Search either the text-based or interactive version.

    • Virginia Health Resources

  • UVa Health Resource Center
    The UVa Health Resource Center (formerly known as "Bodytalk") is a confidential free service designed to provide you, your friends, and neighbors with easy access to health information in everyday language.
  • NIMH Outreach Partner Virginia.
    Mental health information and educational resources from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatric Medicine, and Bodytalk in association with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
  • SeniorNavigator
    SeniorNavigator provides free information about health and aging resources available to Virginians. Searching by ZIP code identifies the resources available in a specific community.
  • 2-1-1 Virginia
    2-1-1 links users to specialists who can refer them to a broad range of services, including affordable housing, health resources, child care, and elderly care.
  • VHI Virginia Health Information
    Contains consumer health guides as well as statistical data and contact information for hospitals and long term care facilities in Virginia. Some reports are for purchase only.
  • Virginia Department of Health
    Up-to-date information about state health alerts and emergency preparedness as well as links to local health districts.

    • Specific Conditions

  • Vaccine Info Database
    Learn about vaccines and the diseases they prevent by searching the vaccine/disease database and investigate requirements for school entry by searching the state-by-state database.
  • OncoLink
    Information on cancer including disease-oriented menus, treatments, clinical trials and FAQs from the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center.
  • HIV InSite
    Provides extensive information on AIDS including prevention, statistics, social policy, other related topics, and patient fact sheets.
  • National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
    Web page available through the National Institute of Health includes fact sheets for practitioners and the public, a database with citations from the medical literature and press releases on alternative medicine news.
  • Traveler's Health Information
    In this Web page the National Center for Infectious Diseases provides health information on traveling overseas.
  • TransWeb: All About Transplantation and Donation
    This Web site includes reference articles, FAQs, and contact information for transplantation and donation topics.

    • Handouts and Publications

  • Health Info Handouts
    Information handouts for patients from the American Academy of Family Physicians.
  • Online Consumer Health Page
    National Institute of Health publications on a variety of topics including acne, transplantation, and HIV infections.

How Do I Find Information on Drugs?

  • MEDLINEplus®: Drug Information
    This consumer Web page provides a guide to more than 9,000 prescription and over-the-counter medications and can be searched by the generic or brand name of the drug. It includes a description, dosage, and side effects of each drug.
  • Consumer Reports: Best Buy Drugs
    Reports and information to guide consumers and doctors in making more cost-effective prescription drug choices.
  • Drug Information Portal – National Library of Medicine
    Selected drug information on more than 12,000 drugs from the National Library of Medicine and other key government agencies.
  • Safemedication.com
    Uses a search engine to allow retrieval of information on medication by brand or generic name.
  • RXMED
    RXMED provides drug and illness information as well as herbal and dietary supplement information.
  • NeedyMeds
    The NeedyMeds Web page was developed to identify information about drug assistance programs. The Web page describes eligibility requirements and how to enroll in the program.
  • ClinicalTrials.gov
    Clinical Research Trials with information on medications currently under investigation by the government.

How Do I Find Information on Physicians and Hospitals?

  • AMA Physician Select
    Web page from the American Medical Association designed as a reference tool of demographic and professional information on physicians in the United States.
  • Physician Certification
    This site contains all physicians certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties.
  • American Dental Association Directory
    Online Directory of dentists in the United States.
  • American Hospital Directory
    This directory provides comparative data for most hospitals. Information includes hospital characteristics, services provided, and costs and charges.
  • HealthGrades.Com
    The Health Grades Web is a commercial Web site that rates hospitals, physicians, health plans, nursing homes, home health agencies, and hospices.

National Library of Medicine Database

  • PubMed
    Database from the National Library of Medicine providing citations to the medical journal literature.
  • PubMed Tutorial
    Online tutorial for searching the PubMed database 

 Medical Dictionaries and Textbooks