Some Campus Web Sites Are Not Just for Scholars
California is home to many prestigious medical schools and other university health care programs. So it comes as no surprise that a number of these schools also boast terrific Web sites. While all the sites have the requisite information on admissions, class offerings and alumni news, this column highlights those offering information of interest to patients and consumers.
The site for Stanford University Medical Center (https://www.med.stanford.edu) is loaded with consumer-friendly features. I searched under the topic “allergies,” for example, and got articles about current research and easy access to other helpful sites outside the university.
I wanted to find information on allergy treatment written in language a layperson could understand, and I found it on a site Stanford developed in partnership wth UC San Francisco (https://www.ucsfstanford.org).
Under “Health Tips,” (https://www-med.stanford.edu/center/communications/HealthTips), you’ll find a list of the medical research that Stanford and UCSF consider noteworthy.
Stanford’s medical students have their own site, MedWorld (https://www.stanford.edu/medworld), with two unique features. One is “DocTalk Radio,” a weekly half-hour show that airs in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can listen to some of the shows online. The bad news is that the show I listened to--about the fat-substitute product Olestra--was badly outdated.
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Another program, called “Doctor Diaries,” seemed innovative enough: Eight medical students chronicle their lives at a major medical school by making weekly entries in an online journal. Unfortunately, these eight students apparently couldn’t find time in their busy schedules to keep their journals up to date. I’ll give MedWorld an A for creativity and a D for execution.
UCSF also offers a daily electronic news service, Daybreak, at https://www.ucsf.edu/daybreak. Another offering is HIVInsite (https://hivinsite.ucsf.edu), a comprehensive HIV-AIDS information Web site, with daily news, statistics, links to other sites and Spanish translation, among other features.
If you’re looking for a doctor and hospital in the San Diego area, you can check out UCSD Healthcare (https://health.ucsd.edu), an alliance between the UCSD School of Medicine and local health providers. And if you don’t live in the San Diego area, the site’s “Health Guide,” (https://health.ucsd.edu/guide/index.htm) offers an extensive index of concise information on more than 300 health topics.
Although some of the information was useful for its clarity and brevity, other entries were too skimpy. For example, while there were treatments mentioned for glaucoma and heart disease, the cancer categories contained no treatment options. Before you leave the UCSD site, take a look at the information on bites, stings, poisonous plants, venomous animals and other hazards at https://health.ucsd.edu/POISON/INDEX.HTM. It’s helpful information, especially if there’s a child in your household.
I also found good consumer-oriented information on the UCLA School of Medicine’s site (https://www.mednet.ucla.edu/). UCLA reaches out to consumers through Vital Signs, a newsletter published three times a year. By visiting https://mednet.ucla.edu/vitalsigns/index.htm, you can easily access articles by topic from the last few years. Titles include “Controlling Teen Drinking,” “Help Reduce Your Risk of Cancer” and “Treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Did your mother tell you that fresh vegetables are more nutritious than frozen? Well, a USC site on pediatric health myths (https://www.chla.org/pedmyths.html) proves Mom wrong.
“Today, foods are frozen so quickly that there’s little time for nutrients to be lost,” according to the site. “Even the FDA now allows frozen-food manufacturers to advertise them as nutritional equals of fresh foods.”
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I’m familiar with the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter and was hoping to find selections from the newsletter on the UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s site. I found a link to the Wellness Letter through the school’s “Healthy Links” page (https://garnet.berkeley.edu/~sph/quicklinks.html), but continually got error messages and never could get to it.
But Berkeley’s “Health on the Web” section offers a terrific list of online public health resources. Don’t be fooled by its simple appearance--it’s quite comprehensive. The Consumer Health Resources link (https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/PUBL/consumer.html), took me to an extensive list of useful links, including ones with nutrition information for 19 fast-food restaurants and another that helps find doctors and hospitals nationwide.
I encourage you to find the Web site of a university in your area and explore its offerings of local services, educational programs and consumer information. (Note to readers: Got a favorite site? While I can’t respond to all my mail, I do plan to review some of the sites you have suggested in a future column. If you’d like a site considered for review, please send your recommendations by April 10 to the e-mail address listed at the end of this column.)
* Marla Bolotsky is managing editor and director of online information for the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. She can be reached by e-mail at marla.bolotsky@latimes. com.
* Your Health Online runs every other Monday in Health.
