HELP MAKING SENSE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH
Ever wonder about what the medical research shows about treatments and the efficacy of treatments in particular diseases or injuries?
A new site, patientINFORM.org is sponsored by the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. The objective is to present up-to-date research available about the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The site offers free acces to selected medical-journal articles and provides plain-language explanations of what the studies mean, how they compare with what's already known and how patients should weigh them in making treatment decisions.
Several leading medical journals offer consumer-friendly versions of their studies and guides for understanding their implications.
The Annals of Internal Medicine, the journal of the American College of Physicians, publishes summaries for patients of some papers in each of its issues. The June 2005 issue also covers a range of issues related to reviewing research and interpreting findings.
The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes a JAMA patient page online that summarizes major studies and information about particular disease topics. However, it is somewhat cumbersome to locate any specific topic. If you type "JAMA Patient Page" into the search engine, it will bring up the list of items published since 1998 but you will have to scroll through them to locate what you want. You can also search for articles related to a specific topic and search for those from a patient page or with a summary of research findings.
Foundations and advocacy groups also support web sites that interpret medical studies.
The Nemours Foundation sponsors a website called kidshealth that covers issues related to pediatric health and behavioral issues.
The Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center of the NIH offers summaries and commentary on new research from the National Institute on Aging experts.
The American Society of Clinical Oncologists operates a consumer site that includes reports on latest research from annual medical meeting and onling "Ask the Expert" chats.
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports on latest research studies and offers expert interpretations of findings.
The American Academy of Family Physicians includes lay summaries of research articles by physician authors on topics of interest to men, women, children and seniors. They also have a series of brochures explaining medical procedures.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine funds research and provides guidelines for evaluating whether to pursue treatments based on studies.
If you identify other websites that should be included on this page, please e-mail me at; mlbowden@umich.edu