LibGuides v.2: HEA 1101 : Healthcare Issue Analysis Assignment: Find Credible Websites

Useful Government Agencies & Institutions

Affordable Care Act Info - Explanations & information from HHS.gov
ASTHO (Association of State & Territorial Health Officials) - nonprofit organization representing public health agencies in the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - This agency offers reliable information on diseases and national health statistics.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) - This agency runs Medicare & Medicaid
Medicare -Official Medicare website for consumers
National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The medical research division of the Health and Human Services Agency
ECRI Guidelines Trust - Clinical practice guidelines website (free registration)
Healthfinder - Reliable health information including an A-Z health library.
Pew Research Center Health Topics - List of the Pew Internet Project’s recent surveys results related to health care issues.
SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) - many topics on prevention, treatment & recovery from mental issness & addiction.
World Health Organization (WHO) - Global health agency with many statistics and reports about the health status of countries all over the world.

HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH

HSR Information Central (HSRIC) - A research portal of health services research resources providing numerous Internet links to data, funding announcements, reports, podcasts, discussion groups, from the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) at the Natonal library of Medicine (NLM)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) - Their mission is to mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable. Look for the tabs for Research tools, data and health information
Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) - Conducts nonproprietary public-interest research on preventing, diagnosing, and treating major health problems
RAND Health - Detailed reports on Healthcare Costs & Financing

HEALTH POLICY

Commonwealth Fund - Information on health policy, health reform, policy improvement
Congressional Budget Office on Health Care
Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) - Credible, non-partisan source of facts, information, and analysis
RAND COMPARE - COMPARE offers objective analyses of policy options currently being used, considered, or discussed by public and private policymakers
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Information about the programs they support to improve public health, access, quality of care, etc.

HEALTH INFORMATICS / HEALTH TECHNOLOGY

AHRQ: Health Information Technology topics
HealthIT (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology)
EHR Incentive Programs (Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Care Record Incentive Programs) - how eligible HC professionals & hospitals can qualify for payments to adopt, implement, upgrade EHRs

CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS / EVIDENCE BASED HEALTHCARE

PubMed Health - Easy to read summaries of medical reviews, guidelines, and clinical effectiveness research
EBM Types of Questions and Studies - University of North Carolina Critical Appraisal Website
Guidelines.gov - National Guidelines Clearinghouse for medical testing, prevention and treatments of diseases
Clinicaltrials.gov - Information on medical research trials from National Institutes of Health
Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare - Efficiency and Effectiveness of the health care system

DISEASES & DISORDERS OVERVIEWS

Cancer.gov - the National Cancer Institute (NCI) website, with statistics, diagnosis, staging & state-of-the-art treatment reports on most cancers.
MEDLINE Plus - National Library of Medicine's site. Includes medical encyclopedia, directories, dictionary, drug information, surgery videos and links to reputable web sites on diseases and conditions. Scroll to the right side of page for Spanish version.
Medscape - free medical news, full text journal articles and information for the healthcare industry. Free registration required.
Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy - a handbook for healthcare professionals
User's Guide to Finding and Evaluating Health Information on the Web (M.L.A.)
Evaluating Health Information - from MedlinePlus

HEALTH DISPARITIES / MINORITY HEALTH

Disparities Policy- Reports and policies to describe and address health disparities from the KFF
Improving Patient Safety Systems for Patients With Limited English Proficiency - a Guide for Hospitals from AHRQ
Minority Health - from the CDC - links to reports, research, etc.
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (CLAS Standards) - from Office of Minority Health
Cancer Health Disparities - from the National Cancer Institute

HEALTH SERVICES ASSOCIATIONS

Academy Health - Broad community of people with an interest in and passion for using health services research to improve health care
American Public Health Association (APHA) - Aims to protect all Americans, their families and their communities from preventable, serious health threats

PATIENT SAFETY

2015 National Patient Safety Goals - from The Joint Commission
Patient Safety Reports - from the ECRI Institute
Patient Safety Definitions & Hot Topics - from the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF)
SHEA Guidelines - Infection-control guidelines from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA)

STATISTICAL DATA