Health & Medical Research Sites

HMO HARDBALL provides patients simple, fill-in-the-blanks forms that solve the problem of the wrongful denial of healthcare as well as other problems. The site update includes two new forms, now bringing the total to five. Each form solves a specific patient HMO (managed care) problem: Appointments, Patient Participation, Emergency Room Access, Medical Records, and HMO Contracts. Not one of these forms requires patient research of medical or health topics.

However, one of three forms in the book does require that the patient provide specific medical/health information related to his/her medical condition. The following medical/health research sites are provided to assist patients who are researching information to complete that form named the Fact Attack. You can read about it in the first chapter of the book that you can access under the website menu entry "About the Book."

HMO HARDBALL has identified sites that are relatively free of conflicts-of-interest. However, be warned. Conflicts-of-interest are everywhere, and their perpetrators do their best not only to hide them, but to present themselves as serving the patient when in fact they are self-serving and despicable.

Click here to read a sampling of sources that identify and warn against these rampant conflicts-of-interest.

The following medical/health research sites have been chosen based on the reputation of the sources, medical/health content, usefulness, access to other links, and an appearance that they are relatively free of conflicts-of-interest. There are also several other sites that aren’t medical/health per se, but are excellent sources. These sites will be monitored and others will be added. Feedback from patients is welcome including sites you have found valuable:
feedback@hmohardball.com.

  • Google
    http://www.google.com

    The most highly regarded search engine available, by most measures.

    Google is a play on the word 'googol," which refers to the number , i.e., 10 raised to the power 100, written out as the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Milton Sirotta is remembered as coining the word 'googol' in 1938, when he was eight years old. As the story goes, his uncle, the mathematician Edward Kesner (1878-1955), asked him what name he would have given to a "1" followed by 100 zeros.

    Google Health/Medicine/Reference/Online Databases.
    http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Medicine/Reference/Online_Databases/Medline/?tc=1

    This link puts a health/medical focus on google, but is not exhaustive.
  • Center for Science in the Public Interest
    http://www.cspinet.org/

    The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a nonprofit education and advocacy organization. CSPI seeks to promote health through public education and representing citizens' interests before legislative, regulatory, and judicial bodies. CSPI is primarily funded by the 800,000 subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and individual donors. CSPI accepts no corporate or government grants
  • Clinical Trials
    http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui

    Never forget to ask the question, "Who benefits?" "Who's getting paid, fame, tenure, exotic vacations, etc. Drug evaluations are often integral to clinical trials. What do patients get? What are the benefits versus the risks to patients? Read the fine print including a guarantee of full disclosure before signing anything. Make sure you have a complete understanding of the Agreement/Contract. Ask and expect responsive answers to your questions, including documentation that you want that isn't provided as part of the PR. Evasion, in any form, is a danger signal. Be sure to ask this question before enrolling in any trial and to make certain to link it to informed consent documents:

    Am I a "human subject at risk or am I a patient?" i.e., What are the doctors' legal relationship in the enforcement of my rights, if any?

    The following site description comes from the site itself.

    The U.S. National Institutes of Health, through its National Library of Medicine, has developed ClinicalTrials.gov to provide patients, family members and members of the public current information about clinical research studies. Before searching, you may want to learn more about clinical trials and more about this Web site. Check often for regular updates to ClinicalTrials.gov.

    Also see FDA-Regulated Clinical Trials at http://www.fda.gov/oc/gcp/default.htm
  • Free Medical Journals
    http://www.freemedicaljournals.com/index.htm

    A relevant research background source. Keep in mind HMO HARDBALL's warnings about medical journals, peer review and junk science. Click the link in the 3rd paragraph of the introduction to these sources.
  • Hardin Medical Directory
    http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/

    Medical / Health Sciences Libraries on the Web.

    200 Health & Medical classifications that direct the patient to a wide variety of Internet links within each category.  Located at the University of Iowa.
  • Health Administration Responsibility Project (HARP)
    http://www.harp.org

    HARP is a resource for patients, doctors, and attorneys seeking to establish the liability of HMOs, Managed Health Care Organizations, and Nursing Facilities for the consequences of their decisions. Good legal and website referral resources. Definitely patient oriented.
  • HEALTH FINDER - Department of Health and Human Services --
    http://www.healthfinder.gov
    A U.S. government generic site with a wide variety of information including useful links.
  • Health Privacy Project.
    http://www.healthprivacy.org

    Georgetown University. Institute for Health Care Research and Policy. This site is well regarded. Patients can place themselves on the Institute's e-mailing listserve for current privacy information updates.

    Patients can also use the following "OPT OUT" links to protect their privacy. (Privacy Rights Clearing House Opt Out Letter) http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs24a-letter.htm

    Yearly "OPT OUT" from ad networks. http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp Click on networks to opt out from and submit. Confirm opt-out has worked, click on Verify Cookies. See PC Magazine, 11/13/01, p.116 for further information
  • Health on the Web Foundation
    http://www.hon.ch/

    Besides providing both patients and medical professionals sources of healthcare information, the site includes a code of conduct to improve the quality of healthcare information on the Internet.  HMO HARDBALL supports the HON Code of Conduct for medical and health web sites.
  • Health Web
    http://www.healthweb.org/
    HealthWeb provides 75 links to specific, evaluated information resources on the World-Wide Web selected by librarians and information professionals at leading academic medical centers in the Midwest. Selection emphasizes quality information aimed at assisting health care professionals as well as consumers in meeting their health information needs
  • Hospice Patients Alliance
    http://www.hospicepatients.org/hospic1.html

    Provides excellent links for cancer and pain. The Hospice Patients Alliance was formed in August of 1998 as a nonprofit charitable organization. It was formed by experienced hospice staff and other health care professionals who saw that hospices were not always complying with the standards of care, and in fact, were in some cases, violating the rights of patients and families and exploiting them for financial gain, or not providing adequate care to control pain or other distressing symptoms during the end of life period.
  • Kaiser Family Foundation
    http://www.kaisernetwork.org/

    Kaiser Family Foundation has no direct affiliation with the Kaiser Permanente HMO. This site is an excellent and free source of daily updated health information that patients can customize and automatically have sent to their e-mail addresses.
  • Mayo Clinic
    http://www.mayoclinic.com/

    A nationally known medical resource. Use it with other sites to get what may be competing and/or consistent points of view. However, consistency is not necessarily a good thing in and of itself.
  • Medical Matrix
    http://www.medmatrix.org/
    Medical Matrix is a free directory of selected medical sites on the Internet.
    The Medical Matrix Search Engine is available by subscription. http://www.medmatrix.org/reg/login.asp Site listings have been evaluated by reviewers from panels of physicians and medical librarians. Medical Matrix lists those sites that meet its criteria for information quality and site usability, with an emphasis on usefulness to healthcare practitioners.
  • MEDLINEplus
    http://www.medlineplus.gov/

    MEDLINEplus, is an extensive source of health information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine. MEDLINEplus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other sources on over 500 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and dictionaries, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, health information from the media, and links to thousands of clinical trials. MEDLINEplus is updated daily and can be bookmarked at MEDLINEplus. There is no advertising on this site. MEDLINEplus does not endorse any company or product directly, but patients must be vigilant to hidden conflicts of interest.
  • MedWeb – Emory University
         http://www.medweb.emory.edu/MedWeb/default.htm
    MedWeb, is a catalog of health related web sites, maintained by the Emory Health Sciences Center Library.  Site capability includes the ability for patients to search by over 50 subjects as well as enter subjects for seach.
  • Medicare
    http://www.medicare.gov/     see also FraudNet
    U.S. Government site for Medicare information.  Sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services.

         Caveat Emptor applies when patients use this site.  We have included it, because the site is one of a kind and hard to ignore.  While it has some useful information, its design and content reflect rampant government conflicts-of-interest detrimental to patients.  In a word, the government has a duty to protect patients from managed care abuses.  It ignores and minimizes this responsibility to patients, because it is determined to enroll Medicare beneficiaries in managed care regardless of the risks to patients.  For examples, click on the HARDBALL's HMO Violators menu option.
  • National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council Website.
    http://www.nationalacademies.org/

    The mission of the Institute of Medicine is to advance and disseminate scientific knowledge to improve human health. The Institute claims to provide objective, timely, authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy. HMO HARDBALL investigators believe that there is a link between the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and RICO.
  • National Library of Medicine Databases & Electronic Information Sources
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/siteindex.html

    NLM provides a wide variety of resources related to the biomedical and health sciences, both past and present. The format of these resources varies: searchable databases & databanks, bibliographic citations, full text (when available), archival collections, and images.

    Note: Also consider using MEDLINEplus. http://www.medlineplus.gov/ (See description above.)
  • NLM – Medline Plus
    http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
    The NLM – Medline Plus has been called the world’s largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. MEDLINEplus is for anyone with a medical question. Both health professionals and patients depend on it for accurate, current, medical information. The service provides access to extensive information about specific diseases and conditions and has links to patient health information from the National Institutes of Health, dictionaries, lists of hospitals and physicians, health information in Spanish and other languages, and clinical trials. There is no advertising on this site.  MEDLINEplus does not explicitly endorse any company or product.
  • Pharma-Lexicon
    http://www.pharma-lexicon.com/

    Look up medical & pharmaceutical acronyms and abbreviations from a database of over 54,000, and find out what they stand for.

    Be vigilant! The pharmaceutical business is known for conflicts-of-interest and big profits at patients' expense. One of the newest, insidious practices used by pharmacies and drug makers is to insinuate their propaganda into patients' minds through the marketing practice termed "direct to patient" advertising. "Drug Makers Find New Way to Push Pills" The Wall Street Journal. June 14, 2002. Page B1
  • Project Vote Smart
    http://www.vote-smart.org/

    Click on link, "Candidates, Issues and Much More." Project Vote Smart provides patients the ability to contact national and state office holders, track legislation, and become informed on government, and public policy issues.
  • Reliability of Health Information on the Net
    http://www.jmir.org/2002/1/e2/index.htm

    An Examination of Experts' Ratings; Mark Craigie, Brian Loader, Roger Burrows, Steven Muncer (J Med Internet Res 2002, January 17; 4(1): e2)
  • Your Surgery, Procedures & Treatments
    http://www.yoursurgery.com/index.cfm#
    An excellent patient resource. For example, relevant to men and women, click abdomen, then click colonoscopy. The explanation, graphics and photographs provide patients a first rate orientation to this procedure. Print out the entire presentation, study it and take it along when you talk to your doctor (demand that an experienced gastroenterologist perform the procedure). Use the information as one basis for a "fact attack" (click About the Book then click Chapter One), if the doctor tells you that a barium enema is superior. (A barium enema is cheaper for the HMO and doesn't provide a mechanism to remove polyps during the examination. You can come back. Patients' time, safety and risk take a back seat to saving dollars for the HMO and its doctors.)