MedlinePlus Tutorial 1: Learn About the Health Information Resource: MedlinePlus

Welcome to the video tutorial: "Learn About the Health Information Resource: MedlinePlus" This video is to support you, the Community Health Worker. It shares about a great reliable website where you can go for health information. It also gives you a brief tour. When you use this one website, you can be confident that you are sharing health information that is accurate and reliable. They have already done the research for you, and pulled together the information you need. So where do you go when you are looking for information about a disease or health condition? Most likely, you go to the internet. And one of the reasons we all turn to the internet is that we get results, right? Lots and lots of results. And we don't know which of these results are ones we can trust. A great free resource for health information that is reliable and trustworthy, is MedlinePlus. It's an online health information resource that is for patients, their families, and the public. There's a lot of misinformation, or incorrect health information out there, But know when you go to MedlinePlus you are using a resource with reliable and trustworthy health information. MedlinePlus is a service of the National Library of Medicine, the world's largest medical library. It's part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. And when you go to MedlinePlus It makes it so much easier because they have already done the work for you. and they have already gathered the information you need. from sources that are reliable. and they keep their information up to date. The reason you can trust MedlinePlus is that they have very high standards for the information on their website. The health information has to be of high quality, and accurate. The main purpose of the information has to be to educate. and not to sell a product or service. Also, it has to be free. And the information has to be kept up to date on a regular basis. Now let's take a short tour of MedlinePlus so you can know about some of the features to help you when you need health information. Even if you already know about MedlinePlus, please keep watching because there may be some things you didn't know about it, as MedlinePlus is always changing and evolving. The web link to MedlinePlus is medlineplus.gov This is the homepage of MedlinePlus and it's where you can go to find the different features that it offers. Starting at the top of the page to the right of the MedlinePlus logo, is a search box you can use to enter a topic you want information on. Under that search box are links to learn more about MedlinePlus, and to learn what's new. and there is a customer support link that has a list of questions that people often ask, with the answers to the questions. Just below but still near the top of the home webpage, you can see a row of tabs. Health Topics, Drugs and Supplements, Genetics, Medical Tests, Medical Encyclopedia. Clicking on each of these will take you to more information in those categories. You'll see these same topics with an additional tab, called Healthy Recipes, just a little bit further down the webpage. Just above that, you will see a welcome to MedlinePlus, and a featured topic. Scroll down past the tabs already mentioned, and you will see a few more categories. including easy-to-read health information. This provides links to quickly find information that's easier to read, understand, and use. These are arranged alphabetically by health topic. Many are also available in Spanish. "Health Information in Multiple Languages" is listed by language. Or, you can browse information by health topic. Also, if you go to the top right of the MedlinePlus home webpage, you will see the option to click on "Español" and you will view the Spanish-language version of MedlinePlus. Not everything is included in the Spanish language version, but quite a bit of it is. The NIH MedlinePlus Magazine is an online magazine for the public. It provides updates on the latest breakthroughs from research supported by the National Instituted of Health. It also offers health tips and wellness overviews vetted by NIH experts. You can subscribe for free and have it sent to your email. Also know you can follow MedlinePlus on social media. For more information, visit the about MedlinePlus webpages. You can do this by clicking on the link that's in the upper right corner of the MedlinePlus home webpage.