webmd

Rachael was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. After surgery and beginning the onslaught of radiation therapy, she went online to search for information--"lurking," she calls it. What she found was much more than scientific information about her disease.

"Here was a community of ladies who had been there, done that," she said. "A real treat when you are overwhelmed and stressed to your limits."

Now, six years later, Rachael (who for purposes of anonymity prefers not to use her last name) is an active member of health information site WebMD. She checks … Read more

I am, sadly, well-acquainted with medical research sites. (I broke my back years ago, and am still dealing with the recovery.) But while everyone knows WebMD and probably uses the site to find out about medical conditions, you might be surprised to know there are a slew of sites that offer similar service, providing outstanding medical information. I've found these sites to be good resources.

HealthiNation While some sites deliver articles of medical information, HealthiNation uses videos to inform you about what a condition is all about.

Overall, HealthiNation is designed quite well and its easy to search for … Read more

The Medpedia Project, a joint effort on the part of Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, and other global health organizations, announced Tuesday that it has launched the beta version of its new site which it calls a new model "of how the world will assemble, maintain, critique and access medical knowledge."

The site features a repository of up-to-date medical information, contributed and maintained by health professionals from around the world. The site also boasts a Professional Network and Directory for visitors to find health professionals and organizations, a Communities of Interest … Read more

It's Friday the 13th today, and just one day left before Valentine's Day, so we beg 404 resident hottie biscotti Rana Showbunny of Medialets into the studio to help Jeff decide what to get his girlfriend for the holiday. Her answer is definitely the opposite from what we thought! Meanwhile, I think all hope is lost for Wilson and me...I can't speak for him, but I know that by this time tomorrow I'll be curled up in the fetal position with a Snuggie watching A Walk to Remember and polishing off a Dumpster's worth … Read more

Beatles fans can now download the Fab Four's tracks legally for free. But there's one catch: they can only do it by subscribing to, and downloading, a podcast from Norwegian Broadcasting. According to a deal inked by the organization late last year, Norwegian Broadcasting can offer podcasts containing music as long as no more than 70 percent of the entire duration of the show contains music. Using that to its advantage, the organization has started offering daily podcast episodes that feature a three-minute discussion about an individual Beatles track and the actual recording of that track subsequent to … Read more

Web search is a whole lot easier than thumbing through a household copy of The Merck Manual when you're trying to find out what you're sick with. A simple search based on symptoms might steer you the right way, but several medical Web services have gone the route of attempting to emulate the kinds of questions you'd get when visiting a doctor's office. One of them, called MEDgle has quietly been offering up a symptom-based medical search tool for the last year.

The crux of MEDgle is the search tool, which either lets users type in … Read more

Although you can't singlehandedly fix the woes of national health care that are spotlighted in the movie Sicko, many free Web sites at least put a bit more power in your hands to manage personal wellness or a medical crisis. Just share your data wisely.

WebMD (a Webware 100 winner) offers videos, virtual support groups, quizzes, blogs, doctor lookups, and a spiffy symptom checker. Look up drugs by a pill's color, imprint or shape. WebMD won't spam you, but as with its competitors, if you subscribe to e-mail updates about some unappetizing ailment, then prepare for related … Read more

Category: Reference

Is that rash on your leg the first stages of flesh-eating bacteria, or do you need to change your laundry detergent? WebMD might be able to save you a trip to the doctor's office or the emergency room. The service hosts a wide range of medical articles and diagnosis utilities. It also has a nifty, 3-D diagnosis checker that lets you choose where aches and pains are in order to help you figure out what's wrong.

The service is best known for its explanatory pages about medications, where users can quickly search for a drug by … Read more