Health topics and related health care information is now easier for the consumer to obtain by using MedlinePlus (http://www.medlineplus.gov /), a premier site for health information. MedlinePlus uses authoritative and up-to-date information gathered from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institute of Health, (http://www.nlm.nih.gov /) and other government agencies and health-related organizations.

Available from any computer with Internet access, MedlinePlus offers a vast array of articles on a variety of health topics, drug information, a medical encyclopedia and dictionary, news articles, directories and other resources.

You may search MedlinePlus by entering a topic in the search box or by clicking on one of the tabs located on the home page.

Health Topics:

• The health topics screen allows you to find your topic by clicking on the first letter of that topic or by searching through broad groups.
• For example, if you needed to know the symptoms of hypothermia, you would select "Symptoms" listed under the broad groups heading, "Diagnosis and Therapy" and then select hypothermia from the alphabetical listing of symptoms topics.
• You will then be given, in addition to information on the symptoms of hypothermia, the latest news articles, treatment, statistics, contact organizations, and much more relating to your topic.

Drugs, Supplements and Herbal Information:

• Prescription and over-the-counter drug information is provided to MedlinePlus from MedMaster, a product of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and USP DI Advice for the Patient, a product of the United States Pharmacopeia.
• You are able to browse by the first letter of either the generic or brand name of the drug.
• As an example, if you wanted information on "Lorazepam" you would click on drug names K-L and browse down the alphabetical listing until you found "Lorazepam".
• For some drugs, you are given links to information from both MedMaster and from USP.
• By clicking on one of these links, you are taken to information about the drug which includes why the drug is prescribed, precautions, side effects, emergencies and overdoses, and other pertinent information relating to the drug.
• Information on herbs and supplements is provided from Natural Standard, the Authority on Integrative Medicine and is searchable in the same way as drug information.
• Also included on this page are links to warnings, recalls, other drug information, medical product safety information and a link to drugs in clinical research studies through Clinical Trials.gov.

A.D.a.M. Medical Encyclopedia:

• Searchable by first letter of topic, the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries and surgeries as well as an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations.
• Besides information on medical diseases, also included the Medical Encyclopedia is information on such topics as childcare, first aid, rape, parenting, pets and pet health, occupational health and much more.

MedlinePlus Medical Dictionary:

• Search the medical dictionary from Merriam-Webster by entering a word or search term in the search box.
• Allows searching by typing in the first few letters of the word followed by an asterisk (*) if you are not sure of the correct spelling.

News:

• The news feature of MedlinePlus contains health-related news articles from Reuters Health Information (archives for 30 days) and HealthDay (archives for 90 days)
• Also included are the most recent press announcements from major medical organizations.
• The news section is searchable by date or by health news topic.

Directories:

• MedlinePlus offers links to various directories for help in locating health professionals, services and facilities.
• Some of these directories include: AMA Physician Select: Online Doctor Finder from the American Medical Association; Find a Hospital from the American Hospital Association; Directory of Services for Blind and Visually Impaired Persons from the American Foundation for the Blind; and many more resources.

Other Resources:

• Included under other resources in MedlinePlus are links for finding local resources for health-related issues; consumer health libraries; various organizations either in alphabetical order or grouped by health topic that provide health information; government health sites from other nations; links to database resources beyond MedlinePlus covering special topics and collections; and MEDLINE/PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's database of references to more than 16 million articles published in 4,800 biomedical journals.