Top Docs 2008 Part II: What to Know

On-Site Consults
Local M.D.s give their opinion on five popular health-information websites.

[sidebar]FamilyDoctor.org
A family-health site founded by the American Academy of Family Physicians; content comes from academy physicians and patient-education professionals.
Checked by: Dr. Lara Hall, family medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance
Exam results: “I actually use this a lot for patient education—it’s easy to search for and print out simple-to-understand explanations of common ailments like lower-back pain and heartburn. Everything’s offered in Spanish as well as English, though I wish it had other languages, too.”

MayoClinic.com
A general-health site created by Minnesota’s famed Mayo Clinic; most content is written and reviewed by Mayo doctors.
Checked by: Dr. Matthew Shuster, geriatrics, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
Exam results: “Very impressive. The site is wide-ranging, and it offers a variety of ways to get at the information, including slide shows, videos, and disease-specific blogs. The ‘Senior Health Center’ section, though a little hard to find, is a top-notch resource (the slide show on how to use a cane is excellent).”

MedlinePlus.gov
The consumer offshoot of Medline (the National Library of Medicine’s monster database); content is pulled from the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies, and major health-related organizations.
Checked by: Dr. J. Jacques Carter, primary care, Beth Israel.
Exam results: “The range of topics is huge, and, coming from the NIH and the National Library of Medicine, you know it’s been vetted, that there’s nothing too ‘out of line.’ MedlinePlus isn’t as flashy or glamorous as, say, WebMD. If I were in charge, I might dress it up a bit. But otherwise it’s solid.”

RevolutionHealth.com
A for-profit health-info site launched by AOL’s Steve Case; content comes from Harvard Health Publications and other information partners.
Checked by: Dr. Susan Bennett, internal medicine, Mass General
Exam results: “As someone who’s taught about sexual issues and health, I checked out and really loved the coverage of those topics. Sex after cancer, for instance—the fact that that was in there at all speaks to the quality of the website. One quibble: Users who aren’t super-savvy might mistake the Google ads for information.”

KidsHealth.org
A child-health site created by the Nemours Foundation’s Center for Children’s Health Media, a nonprofit tied to one of the nation’s largest child-health systems; content comes from the center’s editors and physicians.
Checked by: Dr. Michael Jellinek, child psychiatry, president of Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Exam results: “What I appreciate is that it’s clearly divided into sections aimed at parents, children, and teenagers, and that it takes on tough topics like teen drinking and suicide. It’s more about definitions and facts, though, and less about provoking conversations; some streaming video could help make it more ‘real’ for the next generation.”