Links
NPR series on Primary Care: "The Doctor Can't See You Now" (aired in April 2008)
www.insideout.org/documentaries/primarycare/
American Academy on Physician and Patient
www.physicianpatient.org/The American Academy on Physician and Patient (AAPP) is a society with over 20 years of single-minded dedication to research, education, and professional standards in patient-doctor communication.
Bayer Institute for Health Care Communication
www.bayerinstitute.org/The mission of the Bayer Institute For Health Care Communication is to enhance the quality of health care by improving the communication between clinician and patient through three major activities: education, research, and advocacy. The Institute stresses the concept that effective communication between clinician and patient is a necessity, not an option. We work with health care organizations to conduct research and provide educational opportunities to make it possible for clinicians to develop the communication skills they need to be effective.
Blum Patient and Family Learning Center
www.mgh.harvard.edu/pflc/The Maxwell & Eleanor Blum Patient and Family Learning Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital is here to help you learn about health and illness. Volunteers, nurses, and a health educator are on-hand to help you find easy-to-read pamphlets, magazines, audio tapes, videos, CD-ROMs, web sites and both medical and consumer health books.
CAHPS
www.cahps-sun.orgThe CAHPS Survey Users Network website where all of the surveys, other products, and research are made available to the public. On this site, you can learn about the CAHPS program and survey products and get the information and tools you need to conduct a CAHPS project.
Center for Health Design
www.healthdesign.orgThe Center for Health Design is a leading research and advocacy organization of forward-thinking healthcare and design professionals who are leading the quest to improve the quality of healthcare through building architecture and design. The Center's mission is to transform healthcare settings - including hospitals, clinics, physician offices, and nursing homes - into healing environments that contribute to health and improve outcomes through the creative use of evidence-based design.
Center for Information Therapy
www.informationtherapy.orgThe Center for Information Therapy's mission is to improve health by getting the right information to the right person at the right time to help people make better health decisions. The Center is developing the information therapy concept into the foundation for a new patient-centered health care system. The Center operates in five areas: innovation, communication, evaluation, outreach, and policy.
Cochrane Collaboration
www.cochrane.org/The Cochrane Collaboration is an international non-profit and independent organisation, dedicated to making up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide. It produces and disseminates systematic reviews of healthcare interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions.
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
www.crbestbuydrugs.orgThis website provides information that will help you open a conversation with your doctor about prescription medicines-and particularly about which medicines will best meet your medical needs and give you the most value for your health care dollar. The findings presented here combine an expert medical review of the scientific evidence on prescription drugs with their prices. The analysis compares and contrasts prescription drugs by category that is, drugs in the same class that are used to treat a specific condition or illness such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heartburn or depression.
Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
www.fimdm.orgThe primary mission of the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making (FIMDM) is to strengthen
the role patients play in selecting treatments for their medical conditions. The Foundation achieves its mission
via the following objectives:
• Provide patients with the perspectives and information they need when they face
decisions about medical testing and treatment;
• Improve the quality of decisions patients make in collaboration with their physicians;
• Foster research to learn how best to help patient who face health care decisions.
Healthfinder®
www.healthfinder.gov/healthfinder® is an award-winning Federal Web site for consumers, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services together with other Federal agencies. Since 1997, healthfinder® has been recognized as a key resource for finding the best government and nonprofit health and human services information on the Internet. healthfinder® links to carefully selected information and Web sites from over 1,500 health-related organizations.
Information Therapy for Consumers
consumers.informationtherapy.org/Use this Web site to learn skills to find good information, more about information therapy, and what you can do to support Ix. These pages do not cover information about a specific condition. Once you use these pages, you will better know how to search for information on your condition
Institute for Family-Centered Care
www.familycenteredcare.orgThe Institute for Family-Centered Care is a non-profit organization that provides essential leadership to advance the understanding and practice of family-centered care. By promoting collaborative, empowering relationships between providers and consumers, the Institute facilitates family-centered change in all settings where individuals and families receive care and support.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
www.ihi.orgThe Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a not-for-profit organization driving the improvement of health by advancing the quality and value of health care. IHI is a reliable source of energy, knowledge, and support for a never-ending campaign to improve health care worldwide.
Kenneth B. Schwartz Center
www.theschwartzcenter.org/The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center seeks to strengthen the relationship between patients and caregivers through education, training and support, and public education. Research will be funded in limited circumstances only. The Center supports initiatives which promise both immediate and long-term improvements to the patient-caregiver relationship. It also favors initiatives which, assuming they are successful, can be used as models by other health care organizations.
KidsHealth
www.kidshealth.org/KidsHealth is the largest and most visited site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, the award-winning KidsHealth provides families with accurate, up-to-date, and jargon-free health information they can use. KidsHealth has separate areas for kids, teens, and parents - each with its own design, age-appropriate content, and tone. There are literally thousands of in-depth features, articles, animations, games, and resources - all original and all developed by experts in the health of children and teens.
Medicare Rights Center
www.medicarerights.org/Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of Medicare information and assistance in the United States. Founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get high-quality, affordable health care. The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) was established in 1989 to provide free counseling services to people with Medicare questions or problems. Since its founding, MRC has helped more than one million people with Medicare-related issues.
MedlinePlus
www.medlineplus.gov/MedlinePlus is a a goldmine of good health information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine. MedlinePlus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 650 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and a medical dictionary, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, health information from the media, and links to thousands of clinical trials. MedlinePlus is updated daily. There is no advertising on this site, nor does MedlinePlus endorse any company or product.
MerckSource
www.mercksource.com/pp/us/cns/cns_home.jspMerckSource offers a wide variety of core health tools and resources, available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's free and it has absolutely no advertising. No distractions. Just credible, unbiased health and medical information at your fingertips. Plus, MerckSource gives you the power to customize your experience through tailored news selections on topics that are important to you and your family. Get the ABCs on hundreds of conditions, scan breaking medical news, and prepare for a visit to your healthcare provider.
National Patient Safety Foundation
www.npsf.org/The National Patient Safety Foundation's mission is to improve the safety of patients through our efforts to: Identify and create a core body of knowledge; Identify pathways to apply the knowledge; Develop and enhance the culture of receptivity to patient safety; Raise public awareness and foster communications about patient safety; and Improve the status of the Foundation and its ability to meet its goals.
Office for Women's Careers
http://www.massgeneral.org/womenscareers/The Office for Women's Careers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) exists to facilitate the career advancement of women faculty at MGH and to increase retention of female talent. Goals include: increasing the number of women faculty promoted by academic criteria, increase women faculty in leadership positions, and increase job satisfaction among women faculty.
Ottawa Health Research Institute - Personal Decision Guide
decisionaid.ohri.ca/decguide.htmlThe Ottawa Personal Decision Guide (OPDG) is designed for any health-related and/or social decision. It can help people assess their decision making needs, plan the next steps, and track their progress in decision making.
Patient Powered
www.patientpowered.org/Website created by patients at Peace Health to provide information and decision support tools. Home of the shared care plan.
Planetree
www.planetree.orgThe Planetree organization serves as a catalyst in the development and implementation of new models of health care which cultivate the healing of mind, body and spirit; are patient-centered, value-based, and holistic; and integrate the best of western scientific medicine with time-honored healing practices.
Society of General Internal Medicine
www.sgim.org/The Society of General Internal Medicine is an international organization of physicians and others who combine caring for patients with educating and/or doing research. We are dedicated to improving patient care, education, and research in primary care and general internal medicine.