Reference Surveys HomePast ResultsCurrent ResultsDiane K. Kovacs

1. What are the essential 3-5 print reference sources that you can't work without in answering medical/health reference questions (e.g., information about diseases, injuries, treatments, healthcare professionals, etc.)?

Some reference tools tied in the voting:

1. Principles of Internal Medicine (Harrison)
2. Physician's Desk Reference (PDR)
3. Official ABMS Directory of Board Certified Medical Specialists and Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary
4. Merck Manual of Medical Information, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Mosby's Medical, Nursing, and Allied Health Dictionary, Textbook of Pediatrics (Nelson),  and Dictionary of Medical Syndromes (Magalini)
5. Professional Guide to Diseases and DSM-IV-TR
6. AMA Family Medical Guide, Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice, Essentials of Medicine (Cecil), Current Therapy (Conn), Consumer Drug Reference, and Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary

2. What are the essential 3-5 Web-accessible or other electronic databases that you can't work without in answering medical/health reference questions (e.g., information about diseases, injuries, treatments, healthcare professionals, etc.)?

1. PubMed - http://www.pubmed.gov and MedlinePlus - http://www.medlineplus.gov - (very large margin of voting)
2. CINAHL - http://www.cinahl.com and  MEDLINE (no vendor noted)
3. UptoDate - http://uptodate.com and MDConsult - http://www.mdconsult.com
4. Micromedex - http://www.micromedex.com and Health Source: Nursing/Academic - http://www.epnet.com/biomedical/ (EbscoHost)
5. STAT!Ref - http://www.statref.com, Medline (Ovid), and eMedicine - http://emedicine.com
6. Health Reference Center (Gale) and Health & Wellness Resource Center (Gale) - http://www.gale.com/title_lists/
7. PsycINFO - http://www.apa.org/psycinfo, Health Source: Consumer Edition - http://www.epnet.com/biomedical/hsconsumered.asp (EbscoHost), Google - http://www.google.com,  and Cochrane Library - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/mrwhome/106568753/HOME
8. EbscoHost Databases (unnamed)  and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - http://www.cdc.gov/

These sites recieved 3 votes each:

• NOAH (New York Online Access to Health) - http://www.noah-health.org/
• Medscape from WebMD - http://www.medscape.com
• MayoClinic Web Site - http://www.mayoclinic.com
• ClinicalTrials.gov - http://clinicaltrials.gov/
• American Academy of Pediatrics & AAP journals - http://www.aap.org/
• AMA Physician Select - http://webapps.ama-assn.org/doctorfinder/html/patient.html
• Alt HealthWatch - http://www.epnet.com/biomedical/althw.asp (EbscoHost)

These sites received 2 votes each:

• WorldCat, OVID,,Oncolink - http://www.oncolink.com, NORD - http://www.rarediseases.org, National Cancer Institute - http://www.cancer.gov/, LocatorPlus - http://locatorplus.gov, Librarians Index to the Internet - http://www.lii.org, LexiComp - http://www.lexi.com, HealthWeb.org

These books received 3 votes each:

• Principles of Surgery (Schwartz)
• Encyclopedia of Associations
• Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment
• AHA Guide to the Healthcare Field
• A.A.P. Red Book
• The Heart (Hurst)

These books received 2 votes each:

• Well Connected, Stedman's Medical Encyclopedia, New England Journal of Medicine, Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database (print), Mosby Drug Consults, Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference, Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide, Drug Facts and Comparisons, Diseases  (Bunch), Current Pediatric Diagnosis and Treatment, Comprehensive Text of Psychotherapy (Kaplan & Sadock), AMA Family Medical Guide

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*This Survey was sent to nifl-health, mla-healthlit, Medref-l, Medlib-l, Medwebmasters-l, mmatrix-l, CAPHIS, Publib, Libref-L, LIS-LINK, DIG_REF, ERIL-L, and livereference in Summer 2005.

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