Your Health, In Your Hands
Most people would like to be well-informed health consumers, but finding credible, reliable, freely accessible health information on the Web is an ongoing challenge. This Web Guide helps you locate online medical dictionaries and encyclopedias, health-specific search engines, thorough overviews of illnesses, injuries, diseases, and conditions, and advice on seeking professional medical help.
For a Spanish-language version of the Guide, click here.
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It's important to have a good relationship with your doctor, and it's doubly important to select the right one. Word of mouth is a great way to find a doctor you can trust, but if you're new to an area or would like to do additional research on potential physicians, there are a handful of sites with physician-finder resources to aid you. After you enter some combination of location, specialty, and name, these sites will scour their databases and bring you the contact information for a list of doctors near you.
- Check with your insurance provider to learn which doctors in your area accept your plan. Most insurance companies’ Web sites have searchable databases of doctors in their networks.
To find a doctor in your area …
American Medical Association
resource on the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Web site allows users to search for information on area doctors by inputting their name and location, or their specialty and location. The database contains a list of nearly 700,000 doctors, virtually every licensed physician in the United States. Additional information on education history, accepted insurance providers, and contact information is provided for AMA member physicians.
WebMD
's Physician Directory is searchable by location, name, and specialty. It contains a specialist glossary to assist those not familiar with technical terminology. The information provided is generally quite extensive, but varies from doctor to doctor. This ranges from practice information (contact information, health insurance affiliation, other physicians in the practice) to information on education and training.
FamilyDoctor.org
has a directory useful for locating American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)-member physicians in your area. Results are generally limited to the doctor’s name, with occasional links to a practice’s Web site, but would provide a user with enough details for finding contact information in a Web directory like
Switchboard.com.
DoctorDirectory.com
is a comprehensive click-through directory that narrows down your search by specialty and location. Other services include a hospital finder, a health plan finder, and a medical school finder.
The Medicare Physician Directory
contains names, addresses, phone numbers, specialties, and other important information for Medicare-participating physicians who have agreed to accept assignment on all Medicare claims and covered services. Assignment only works with the Original Medicare Plan. It does not apply if you are in a Medicare managed care plan or Private Fee-For-Service plan. It is important to note that this directory does not include physicians who do not participate with Medicare, as nonparticipating physicians may take assignment on a case-by-case basis, or may never take assignment.
For a dentist near you …
1-800-DENTIST
has a four-step process for finding a dentist: state your location and dental preferences, select an office, confirm your profile, and review the details of the dentist and office. The expanded information on the dentists and their practices—which include hours, credentials, treatments offered, and conveniences—are a nice touch.
The American Dental Association
is the largest dental association in the United States, with over 150,000 members. This feature allows users to search specifically for ADA-member dentists in their area. It provides a glossary to help those unfamiliar with dental terminology determine what specialist suits their case.
The Academy of General Dentistry
allows users to search for AGD-member dentists in their area. Keep in mind that dentists listed only practice general dentistry.
Dentists.com
has an easy-to-use database of over 100,000 dentists, making it simple to locate a dentist near you.
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