Finding Reliable Health Information Online

Overwhelmed by the amount of health information on the Internet? Not sure if certain sites are trustworthy? We recommend you begin your search for reliable health information with the National Library of Medicine's comprehensive consumer health site, MedlinePlus.gov.

Follow these quick tips for "healthy" Internet searching:

• don't search the entire Internet - start with MedlinePlus.gov
• evaluate commercial ("dot com") sites carefully for bias and conflict of interest
• check to see if the information is current (less than 5 years old)
• look for the credentials of the author (i.e. doctor, nurse, psychologist) to make sure the information is written by a health professional
• Use this tutorial about evaluating online health information from  the National Library of Medicine

More resources for high-quality health websites:

• Our collection of Healthy Links (to request paper copies of the links in a brochure format for yourself or a group, please use this brochure request form)
• ShareCare.com (health information from Johns Hopkins experts, as well as other authoritative sources)

Contact the Community Health Library staff with questions about finding the best health information for you or request a search by a librarian.