Did you ever search a health topic on the Internet only to come up with the latest miracle cure or blog about someone’s gallbladder surgery? There is a lot of misinformation, quackery, and sales pitches mixed in with good, accurate information.
Members of the Health Information Library Network of Northeastern PA, a consortium of local medical librarians, know the frustration and difficulty the general public has finding good medical information, especially information on local resources. In order to help, they’ve created a website to help local consumers find what they need.
One of the goals of their Heath Info NEPA website is to point those looking for health information in the right direction, by providing links to websites that the librarians have determined to be the best and most trustworthy.
The other goal, which makes this website unique, is to bring information about local healthcare resources, agencies and support groups together in one place to make searching for this information easy and efficient.
According to Rosemarie Taylor, a medical librarian at Wyoming Valley Heath Care System, the group began with he top 10 health concerns of NEPA. “These are the top diagnoses in our local hospital,” stated Taylor.
The librarians then added as much local information as they could from Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Monroe counties, the locations of the HILNNEP Institutions.
“We also include links to wellness information, patient safety, plus local health calendars and organization,” Taylor added.
The website also provides extensive information for those who want to search a health topic on the Internet. There are links to help find doctors and hospitals, information on drugs, symptoms, test and much more.
Taylor says the group created the website on a very short timeline and with no budget. “The website isn’t very glitzy, but it is easy to use and has lots of good information. We had to make some hard choices at the start of the project in order to get if off the ground. Our members devoted any spare time they had to work on the website. It is by no means complete. We will continue to add and update information.”
The website is also the subject of an abstract and poster that was accepted for the Medical Library Association’s annual meeting in May.
“It was the website’s debut in front of our peers. We were excited to show what can be done when there is cooperation and determination. Hopefully others can use our example to create similar tools for their communities.” said Taylor.
