Useful Resources for Creating WisdomCards and WisdomStubs
Use this "white list" of resources as a starting point to help find other great resources, links, and information.
Tip: Use multiple search terms to locate the best resources. For instance, if your topic is "brain cancer" you may also want to look for information under "brain tumor." If your topic is more than one word, try enclosing it in quotes when you search Google (or other sites), so that you only get results that contain the two words together. Example: "Teen Pregnancy"
Recommended Search Engines
Check These First
Each of the following sites must be included in your WisdomCards whenever information is available.
- eMedicine
- UpToDate
- A.D.A.M. (via New York Times Health) or A.D.A.M. (via MyOptumHealth.com)
- MedlinePlus (Often A.D.A.M. content, or some other licensed library.)
- National Institutes of Health
- Mayo Clinic
- FamilyDoctor.org
- WebMD
- Healthwise (via WebMD)
- Cleveland Clinic
- The Doctors Channel
- HealthVideo (formerly Healthology)
- Aetna InteliHealth
- Everyday Health
- Pri-Med Patient Education Center (This patient health information is written by Harvard Medical School faculty.)
- Healthline
- Gale Encyclopedia (via Healthline) (or A.D.A.M. or StayWell via Healthline)
- PsychCentral
Health Associations
These sites are perfect for including in Great Resources/Top Resources:
- National Cancer Institute
- American Cancer Society
- American Heart Association
- American Diabetes Association
- American Lung Association
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Urological Association
- American Academy of Dermatology
- Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
- American Dental Association
- American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
- National Stroke Association
- American Academy of Family Physicians
Great Government Health Sites
These sites are perfect for including in Great Resources/Top Resources:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)
- National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC)
- National Eye Institute Health Information (NEI)
- National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI)
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
- Women’s Health.gov
Other Great Health Sites
- HealthCentral (a network of health sites, such as BipolarConnect, MyRACentral, MyHeartCentral, IncontinenceNetwork, and many others)
- Healthcommunities (a network of health sites, such as CardiologyChannel, MentalHealthChannel, RheumatologyChannel, and many others)
- VisualDxHealth
- icyou (video)
- eMedicineHealth
- MedicineNet
- WrongDiagnosis | CureResearch ("sister sites" with virtually identical content)
- Medical College of Wisconsin HealthLink
- Quackwatch
- Revolution Health
- CNN Health
- HealthiNation (video)
- KidsHealth
- OncoLink
- AskDrWiki (from Cleveland Clinic)
- Women's Cancer Network
- NOAH
- Merck Manuals
- Medscape (requires a {{Registration}} icon)
- NetDoctor UK
- PDRHealth
- Quamut
- Krames Online (via Wishard)
- DermNet NZ (skin conditions)
- MediResource (via C-Health)
- eMedTV
- Medic8
- BC HealthGuide
- YourTotalHealth (formerly iVillage Health)
- Medpedia
- Wikipedia (use for images or bios; only use for health conditions as last option if everything else has been exhausted)
Treatments and Medications
Watch for duplicate content as many sites use information from licensed libraries.
- U.S. FDA
- Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
- Drugs.com
- MedFacts (via Drugs.com)
- PDR (via Drugs.com)
- Drug InfoNet
- RxList
- DrugDigest
- DailyMed
- DrugLib
Holistic and Alternative Treatments
- AltMD
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Herbs, Botanicals and Other Products
- rVita
- Dr. Weil
- Acupuncture.com
- Healthwise Alternative Medicine (via Yahoo Health)
- Yahoo Directory - Alternative Medicine
- HealthWorld Online
- WholeHealthMD
- GrannyMed
- MotherNature (a commercial site, but has good holistic library; when using the library use a "via" to credit the book source and no {{Commercial}} icon is needed)
- Gold Bamboo
Wisdom, Stories and Blogs
- Technorati (be careful of "spam" sites!)
- Google Blog Search (be careful of "spam" sites!)
- YouTube
- Yahoo Answers
- Flickr
- Healthline Blogs
- Healthtalk Blogs
- Healthedia
- ParentCenter
Support Groups
- DailyStrength
- HealthWise Support Groups
- Ning.com (social networks)
- Meetup.com
- MySpace (be careful as many groups are set up by marketers)
Message Boards, Chat and Discussions
Scientific and Medical Journal Articles
These are not newspaper, magazine or Web site articles, but technical reports of scholarly research by reputable scientists and doctors. We do include individual journal articles that are especially interesting or especially good matches for the WisdomCard topic, however we primarily link to the search results pages at these sources -- one of the only times we endorse linking to search result lists -- if possible the results should be limited to the last 5 years (see The Wisdom of Guides for instructions).
Clinical Trials
A clinical trial is a research study that tests a scientific theory about a disease or treatment. Patients learn about clinical trials in order to obtain new treatments, help scientists learn more about their illnesses, or just keep aware of what's being tested.
Hospitals
These cards should take the point of view of a patient. So while we'll include promotional material from the hospital itself, we should balance that when possible with other opinions. Some places to start:
- U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals
- The Joint Commission
- Yahoo Local and other review sites may have useful entries
Physician Ratings
Health Search Engines
General Search Engines and Sites
- Yahoo
- Mahalo
- Wikipedia
- Ask.com (great for video search)
- Del.icio.us
- Digg.com
- Stumble Upon
- PolyMeta
IMPORTANT: Quality Review!
We respect these resources as a gold standard, so for each WisdomCard please review to make sure your WisdomCard is as good or better than:
Sites to Avoid
These are examples of sites we have identified as spam, not very useful, or simply unsourced material.
- ezine-articles.com
- suite 101
- health-cares.net
- associatedcontent.com
- eHow
- curezone.com
- PeaceHealth - they have asked not to have outside links to their site
Try to avoid sites that force users to fill out a registration form, or sites that offer their content only in the form of PDFs.
