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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All medication, whether prescribed by your doctor or received over the counter, is accompanied by directions for use. These could be a doctor’s or pharmacist’s verbal instructions, their directions scribbled on a piece of paper, a label on the bottle, or even text on the back of the box. And although these instructions may be helpful in telling you how to take the drugs, chances are you haven't been fully briefed on what the drugs are or how they work. The following Web sites will help you answer some important questions: What is my drug and how does it work? How do I take it properly? Where can I find usage information, warnings, and precautions for specific drugs?
- Among the many valuable resources on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's site are tips and other consumer information about buying medication and medical supplies online. Tips include buying only from licensed domestic pharmacies and only from sites that require a prescription and have staffed pharmacists to field questions. Also review the privacy policy to be sure they keep your credit information safe.
- Low-income families can be eligible for subsidized medication. The Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) pairs low-income patients lacking prescription drug coverage with private and public programs organized by pharmaceutical companies, health care providers, doctors, and patient advocacy organizations, to bring them free or cheap medication. Once at the site, select the "Patients" section. To begin, you'll be asked to list the medication you take. Then you'll get a list of participating programs. Eligibility for these programs generally requires an extremely low level of income.
For general information on precautions and usage …
The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
's "Think it Through: A Guide to Managing the Benefits and Risks of Medicine," walks through the important issues raised when taking any medication, and suggests questions to ask both your doctor and pharmacist.
The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
's "Think it Through: A Guide to Managing the Benefits and Risks of Medicine," walks through the important issues raised when taking any medication, and suggests questions to ask both your doctor and pharmacist.
The Mayo Clinic
provides general medication information including precautions before and during usage, as well as tips on storage, proper use, and side effects.
SafeMedication.com
has a searchable database with information based on American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Medication Teaching Manual: The Guide to Patient Drug Information, a publication developed for use in patient-education programs conducted by health care professionals. The database features more than 900 name-brand and generic medicines.
For information on specific drugs …
The National Library of Medicine
has an extensive, easy-to-navigate drug listing providing information on precautions, administering the medication, side effects, storage, emergency situations, brand names, and more.
MedicineNet.com
has a database of over 2,500 drugs. Listings include uses, proper usage, side effects, precautions, drug interactions, overdose advice, and links to related articles on the MedicineNet site.
The FDA
has a list of approved drugs with links to fact sheets containing dosage information, warnings and safety alerts, and more.
For seniors …
The National Institute on Aging
's "Safe Use of Medicines" brochure has tips on how seniors can keep track of the pills they need to take, hints to help you get the most out of your medication, and a Q&A section. Click the link on the right to download the file. For other NIA publications addressing seniors medication, visit
this page.
For recalls and warnings …
The FDA
posts drug warnings and other alerts on its site; it's here that you'll find recall information and other important consumer notices. These two articles warn consumers about drugs that are widely distributed, advertised, and consumed without FDA approval and without any proof of effectiveness (
FDA News,
Marketed Drugs Lack Approval).
The Consumers Union
is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting consumers’ rights. In the "Health Care" section of their site you'll find listings (via the link to "Safety and Quality" on the left) of incidents of questionable practices among hospitals, doctors, and manufacturers.
Recalls.gov
allows users to access updated lists of all recalled drugs, vaccines, medical devices, and other biologics.
For clinical trials …
ClinicalTrials.gov
is a definitive source of information about ongoing and upcoming patient-based drug tests.
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