Transcript Health Law Research Online Good for You or Hazardous to your Health? Spencer L.

Health Law Research Online
Good for You or Hazardous to your Health?
Spencer L. Simons
Elizabeth Schneider
SWALL Annual Meeting, 2006
Austin, Texas
April 7, 2006
Health Sites v. Health Law Sites
• Legal Information Institute
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Health
• ABA Health Law Section
http://www.ABAnet.org/health/home/html
• Health Law Section, State Bar of Texas
http://www.texhealthlaw.org
• Guide to Health Law, Hieros Gamos
http://www.hg.org/health.html
• Georgetown University Law Library Research Guide Health Law
http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/guides/health.cfm
• Government Accounting Office Reports
http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/topic.php
Introduction
• Assumption: we all are now familiar with the WWW and
“how to”.
• “Health Law”: subsumes many subjects.
• Related Information: Medical, public health,
pharmaceutical, organizations and professions.
• High and growing importance for professionals and
general public.
• Result: Astounding number of sites of high quality, and
plenty of bad ones.
• Focus: a few of the best sites for critical purposes,
mostly for the professional librarian assisting
professionals or the public.
• A warning about traps for the unwary.
Overview
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Introduction
Glossaries and Acronyms
Megaportals and Pathfinders
Health Law specialty sites
"Warm up" sites for the non-specialist
Best medical literature sites
Key reference works
Medical images
Directories and Physician information
Medical Statistics
Bioethics
Elder laws
Consumer-oriented sites
Warning to the unwary
Glossaries & Acronyms
• Glossaries of Commonly Used Health Care Terms
http://www.academyhealth.org/publications/glossary.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/encyclopedia.html
• Acronyms
http://www.CMS.hhs.gov/acronyms
MegaPortals & Pathfinders
• Hieros Gamos
Provides many links to legal and news resources, directories, and
practice oriented materials. Intended audience; law firms.
http://www.hg.org
• Health Pathfinder – University of Houston Law Center
Provides hundreds of annotated links from the UHLC Health Law and
Policy Institute’s web page. Covers health law, health policy, and
general health.
http://www.law.uh.edu/healthlaw/pathfinder/homepage.html
• Health Law & Medicine Page
An extraordinarily inclusive page created by Prof. Tom Mayo, SMU Law
School. Includes much of what you’ll find on other portals and
pathfinders, plus surprising things representing Prof. Mayo’s personal
interests. Much on Texas. Worth exploring.
http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/twmlinkshealthmedicine.htm#misc
Health Law Topical Sites
• HIPAA
HHS guide to HIPAA. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/
• Medicare/Medicaid Guides for the Public
Official sites to inform the public. http://www.ssa.gov/mediinfo.htm
• Medical Malpractice
Guide to understanding elements and strategies involved in medical
malpractice claims, including the litigation process, medical experts, and
confidential status of medical records. Many links to common examples of
malpractice in medical specialties and procedures.
http://www.lectlaw.com/tmed.html
• Healthcare Management
This site is provided by a consultant, but has a wealth of links to
information on healthcare administration, finance, managed care,
directories, and more for hospital, physician, nurse and other executives.
http://www.pohly.com/books_index.html
“Warm Up” Sites
• MedicineNet.com
Provides easy to read introductions to many medical topics. A good
place to start before using more technical resources. Includes a
medical dictionary.
http://www.medicinenet.com
• Aetna IntelliHealth
Provides information to the public from expert sources, including
Harvard Medical School and Columbia University School of Dental
and Oral Surgery,
http://www.intellihealth.com
Best Literature Sites
• Entrez MedLine
A service of the National Library of Medicine, includes over 15 million
citations for biomedical articles back to the 1950's. Citations are from
MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to
many sites providing full text articles.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
• PubMed Central
PubMed Central is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital
archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
• MeSH Terms & Definitions, at Health on the Net Foundation
www.hon.ch/home.html
Key Reference Works
• Physicians Desk Reference
For professionals and the public. Registration required, but free.
http://www.pdr.net/pdrnet/librarian
• Merck Manual of Diagnosis & Therapy
http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/home.jsp
• American Heart Association’s Heart & Stroke Encyclopedia
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jthml?identifier=10000056
Medical Images
• Numerous sites contain medical images.
• Medical Images on the Web
Provided by McGoogan Library of Medicine at the U. of Nebraska
Medical Center, provides links to a number of collections of images.
http://www.unmc.edu/library/reference/medimage.html
Directories & Physician Information
• National Health Information Center
A health information referral service, which puts health professionals
and consumers who have health questions in touch with appropriate
organizations.
http://www.health.gov/nhic/
• American Medical Association’s Doctor Finder
Provides basic professional information on virtually all MDs and DOs
in U.S. and possessions.
http://dbapps.ama-assn.org/aps/amahg.htm
• Docinfo.org
Provides public access to disciplinary records. Maintained by the
Federation of State Medical Boards.
http://www.docinfo.org/
Medical Statistics
• National Center for Health Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/default.htm
• Glasgow University Library’s Medical Statistics on the
Internet
http://www.lib.gla.ac.uk/Depts/MOPS/Stats/medstats.shtml
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Research,
Statistics, Data & Systems
http://new.cms.hhs.gov/home/rsds.asp
• American Cancer Society’s statistical data site
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/STT/stt_0.asp
• Section 3 of the Statistical Abstract of the United States
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/statistical-abstract.html
Bioethics
• American Journal of Bioethics
http://www.bioethics.net
• ABOJ Weekly News & Updates
Weekly compilation of full text articles on bioethical and health law topics.
Subscriptions are free, but subscription is required.
http://www.bioethics.net/news.php
• NIH Bioethics Research on the Web
http://www.nih.gov/sigs/bioethics/
• National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature
The Kennedy Institute of Ethics library and information services page.
http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/
• National Bioethics Advisory Commission Digital Archive
http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/nbac
More Bioethics
• President’s Council on Bioethics
Contains reports, background materials, and related sites including links to
prior bioethics commissions.
http://www.bioethics.gov
• Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
Topical information and resources. Brings a Christian worldview to bear
on these matters. Exists to help individuals and organizations address the
pressing bioethical challenges of our day.
http://www.cbhd.org/index.html
• Center for the Study of Bioethics
At the Medical College of Wisconsin. Includes a link to Bioethics News.
http://www.mcw.edu/bioethics/
• Center for Bioethics at Columbia University
Online bioethics gateway.
http://www.bioethicscolumbia.org/resources.html
Elderlaw
• ElderLaw Answers
Provides legal information, not legal advice. Provides the best
information on the Internet on critical issues facing seniors. Also
provides a network of highly qualified elder law attorneys nationwide.
http://www.elderlawanswers.com
• Senior Law Homepage
Source of information that senior citizens, attorneys, social workers and
financial planners can access. Created by Goldfarb Abrandt Salzman &
Kutzun of New York City. Contains links to sources.
http://www.seniorlaw.com
• Megalaw.com’s Elder Law Page
Contains links to statutes, agencies and resources, national elder law
organizations and resources, and state elder law web sites.
http://www.megalaw.com/top/elder.php
Elder Law: Nursing Homes
• Medicare’s Nursing Homes page
Has information on nursing home inspections, alternatives to nursing
homes, paying for long term care, residents’ rights, nursing home
publications and nursing home related sites. There is also a checklist for
selecting a nursing home. Its best feature may be Nursing Home
Compare, which makes it possible to compare individual nursing facilities.
http://www.Medicare.gov/nursing/overview.asp
• State Nursing Home Resources
Prepared by individual states, but with national applicability.
http://www.cdphc.state.co.us/hf/static/ncf.htm (Colorado)
http://www.health.state.ny.us/facilities/nursing (New York)
http://www.idph.state.il.us/a-zlist.htm#N (Illinois)
Several Maryland agencies and legal organizations have compiled
the information here to help people to know what your choices are
ahead of time.
http://www.oag.state.md.us/consumer/nurshome.htm (Maryland)
Nursing Homes, continued
• AARP Policy & Research for Professionals in Aging
Nursing Home Fact Sheet provides a good introduction to the topic. Also
information on costs, quality, long term care insurance and nursing home
trends.
http://www.aarp.org/research/longtermcare/nursinghomes
• Nursing Home Information Site
Prepared by a social worker. Information presented helps with questions
relating to nursing homes, Medicare, Medicaid, long term care insurance,
patients’ rights and advanced treatment. Includes nursing home ratings
which claim to be unbiased.
http://www.angelfire.com/tn/NursingHome
• CareScout
Allows user to search and compare a variety of facilities include nursing
homes, assisted living facilities, house health agencies and hospice
agencies.
http://www.carescout.com
Elder Law: Guardianship
• National Guardianship Association
Good information of what constitutes guardianship. Links to resource
agencies. http://www.guardianship.org
• Disability Law Center of Alaska– Introduction to Guardianship
Very good introductory material.
http://www.dlcak.org/publications/guardianship/
Elder Law: Elder Abuse
• National Center for Elder Abuse
Source of information and assistance on elder abuse. Provides links and
directories, laws and legislation, statistics and research and resources.
http://www.elderabusecenter.org
• Elder Abuse
Information on types, possible causes, links, and resources.
http://www.geocities.com/~elderly-place/abuse.html
• Elder Abuse and Neglect: In Search of Solutions
By the American Psychological Association’s Office on Aging. Offers a
good discussion of the topic.
http://www.apa.org/pi/aging/eldabuse.html
• Department of Justice’s Elder Abuse Page
By the Office for Victims of Crimes. Includes links to support organizations.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/help/ea.htm
Consumer-Oriented Sites
Many sites, particularly governmental, have
some consumer oriented information.
• MedLinePlus
A service of the NLM and NIH, it includes consumer- oriented information on
over 700 health topics, drug information, an illustrated encyclopedia, and
links to numerous directories.
http://medlineplus.gov/
• Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
FDA site with professional and industry-oriented information, but also
much accessible drug information for the consumer.
http://www.fda.gov/cder/
Warning to the Unwary
• Web has many dubious sites by self-styled experts and
advocates.
• Here are sites seeming to give objective information, but
look closely:
A portal to commercial sites
A site selling a supposed antidote (not supported by medical experts)
A site for law firms soliciting p.i. and class action claimants