Best Cancer Information on the Web
Many patients are interested in investigating their own health problems and doing their own research into diseases they have or treatment options they may be facing. There are several million articles published each year on many aspects of medicine, and this explosion of information leaves both the doctors and patients in a quandry to ‘keep up’.
Today most societies and medical groups are basing their recommendations on what is called Evidence Based Medicine. This is a way of making sure that what is recommended is supported by the facts.
- Be smart about asking the right medical questions(s)
- Make sure that the information that we are looking for is correct and appropriate to the situation at hand
- Not just accept random articles that may not even be appropriate to your case
- Make sure that the answer we arrive at applies to your particular case and situation
- Come up with an answer that is covered by your health plan
- Know how likely you are to accept the risks and toxicities of varying treatments
The answer to this quandary is to have an organized and appropriate search tool to help us.
- For cancer I always start with the following resource at www.nccn.org. which is a collaboration of 13 major cancer centers trying to decide what is the best approach today for our patients. I believe it states the true state of the art and standard of care. We also use the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/ETO1.asp and www.acs.org.
- For general medical problems I start with the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making at www.informedmedicaldecisions.org. and the Health Dialog which is at www.healthdialog.com. These resources offer appropriate options for consideration in light of prsent knowledge and what is considered to be acceptable and beneficial as the standard of care.
- Another excellent resource for stadard of care options for various diseases is the National Guidelines Clearning House at the www.guidelines.gov. It gathers under one site the practice guideline from hundreds of institutions
- To dig even further to find recommendations that are evidence based, you can go to Center for Evidence-Based Medicine at www.cebm.net. and the Evidence-based Medicine Resource Center at www.ebmny.org.
- For general medical information including drug information I use is WebMD at www.emedicine.com, and Everyday Health at www.everydayhealth.com.
- For lists of available studies I go to is The Society for Clinical Trials at www.sctweb.org.
- Finally, for help in determining the value of information I go to www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/webeval/webeval.html.
We hope you find this helpful, but remeber that we have tried to consider all the above when we make our recommendations for your treatment.
