What Your Symptom's Really Mean

Hi All,

WebMD's Symptom Checker is a very useful and interactive tool that might help you diagnose what is really wrong with you when you don't feel well. 

The top of the page has a helpful ribbon of options - which include topics like 'Health A-Z', 'Drugs and Supplements', 'Living Healthy', 'Family and Pregnancy' and 'News and Experts'.  

The real value of the site is the Symptom Checker tool. In order to use it though, users need to fill out some information - which is completely useless since the user can enter false answers to questions like 'Who is the information for?', 'Gender' and 'Age'.  Other options include zip code and your email address. Once you submit the answers you see a screen with a body map. Users can click on the map to zoom in on various parts of the body.

For example, I chose the chest - then a list of chest symptoms appears next to the body map.  I chose a 'cough'.  Whereupon several questions related to the cough are asked.  Questions included 'what brought on the cough?', 'Cough developed after exposure to...', and 'Cough associated with...'.

A list of possible conditions is included on the screen once all the questions are successfully answered.  Whereupon the user can click on any of the possible conditions and will promptly be taken to the WebMD section of the site that discusses that condition.

At the top of the screen a list of the symptoms is included, an overview of the condition is given, what the patient can expect from the condition is also discussed. Furthermore a section of 'how common' the particular condition is? is listed on WebMD. Sections on Treatment, Self Care, Made Worse By, When to See Your Doctor and Questions to Ask Your Doctor is included in the WebMD Symptom Checker.

Readers can skip to the next condition, print the current condition and more. 

WebMD has a Cold and Flu newsletter for readers as well as options to Find a Doctor and Finding the Lowest Drug Prices.

The site is easy to navigate, reputable, current and well organized.  Its a good site to learn more about your present condition/illness or to learn what your present symptoms actually mean!

Regards,
Stu

Recalls.gov

Hi All,

I heard about Recalls.gov from the radio this weekend. I was washing some dishes and listening to the radio and I heard and advertisement about the site.  Wow - I was so impressed I actually jotted down the name and decided to write a blog entry about the sit.  And here we are!

So...what is Recalls.gov? Great question....direct from the website is this summary:

"To provide better service in alerting the American people to unsafe, hazardous or defective products, six federal agencies with vastly different jurisdictions have joined together to create www.recalls.gov -- a "one stop shop" for U.S. Government recalls.  Follow the tabs above to obtain the latest recall information, to report a dangerous product, or to learn important safety tips."

So there you are.  A one stop for U.S. government recall information.

There are tabs for Consumer Products, Motor Vehicles, Boats, Food, Medicine, Cosmetics and Environmental Products. Click each of the prior topics to go to that particular site.

There are also tabs for Recent Recalls, a place where users can Search For Recalls, and another place where visitors can Sign Up For E-mail. 

Widgets for smartphones and tablets are available for each of the tabs mentioned before (Consumer Products, Motor Vehicles, Boats, Food, Medicine, Cosmetics and Environmental Products)....

Information for the site was gathered from various government entitiees like the USDA, FDA,  CDC, US Department of Health and Human Services, EPA, US Consumer Product Safety Commission. 

Enjoy the site - I think it will be very helpful when you need to find out about a product recall.

Regards,
Stu

Science Daily - science news

Hi All, 

Just wanted to give readers a heads up on an interesting science news website called ScienceDaily.  Click here for the link. 

What does the site include?  Well, its current and timely news articles related to the sciences.  There are links for subjects like Health and Medicine, the Mind and Brain, Plants and Animals, the Earth and Climate, Space and Time, Matter and Energy, Computers and Math, and, finally, Fossils and Ruins.  Each of the aforementioned subjects can be reached by clicking the previous link.

Also available on the site are links to videos, images and articles.  There is also a search box at the top right side of the page which is very helpful for users who just want to type in a phrase that doesn't correspond to the subject headings that I previously listed. 

Users can also get all of ScienceDaily's headlines sent to them every day via the Science Daily RSS newsfeed or the Email newsletter.  Note that users will have to subscribe to a specific subjects' RSS feed or Email newsletter in order to receive the headlines.  Aka...users can't just get a summary of all ScienceDaily's articles on a daily basis.  

Site isn't as well designed as it could be - there are too many advertisements and the site is a bit cluttered. But...that's a small price to pay for a current, topical, relevant website that covers 'non-mainstream' topics like science and technology. 

Enjoy the site!

Stu

Hospital Comparisons on Long Island

Hi All,

Hopefully you'll never have to use this site, but if you do...Hospital Compare from the Department of Health and Human Services (sponsored by the United States Government) is absolutely fabulous. I don't throw around compliments like that often, but this site is just great!

Starting at the beginning - a good place to start I would think :) - users can enter a location (Zip Code, City or State) in the boxes provided. Users can then focus on types of hospitals by narrowing down by General Hospitals, by Medical Condition or by Surgical Procedures.

The example that I'll use in this blog entry is a search for hospitals in the zip code 11501 (Mineola, New York). Once I did that search I saw a page that listed 62 hospitals that are withing 25 miles of Mineola. The usual suspects of hospitals comes up - including: Winthrop University Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital and others.

The chart lists hospitals by the hospital type (acute care, acute care - veterans, Children's hospital, Critical Care hospitals and whether or not the hospital offers emergency services).

The real value of the site comes when users click on the tab at the top of the page that says 'Quality of Care'. When users click on this link they can see data on:

1. Survey of Patients' Hospital Experiences
2. Process of Care Measures
3. Outcome of Care Measures
4. Use of Medical Imaging
5. Patient Safety Measures

Users can compare up to 3 different hospitals in chart format - which makes it very, very easy to digest all the data. Users can also view the data in graph or table format for easier viewing and consumption of the information. Wow - very informative, timely and useful information is at your fingertips now!

Enjoy the site - I hope you find it useful and timely.

Regards,
Stu