« Free Life Science and Health Books Online | Main | Patient Assistance Resources »
May 09, 2006
Consumer Health Information: Kosmix and iBoogie and healthfinder
There are always a variety of Internet search engines, and som specifically on health. There is a new health Internet search engine that has some interesting features.
Kosmix: http://www.kosmix.com/
Kosmix focuses most searches towards health topics, and defaults to the health tab for your search. It does not search the complete Internet, and would not be a good choice for information about movie stars, for example. When you search a health topic in Kosmix, it takes the various results and sorts them into folders in a bar on the left side. The folders include such topics as "Written for Doctors", "Definitions," "Support Groups", "Overview", and much more. This can streamline a search, allowing you to zoom in quickly to the type and level of information you are seeking.
iBoogie: http://www.iboogie.com/
iBoogie is a broader Internet search engine, but has a similar interface, also using the tab-model to focus a search on a given area. Kosmix clusters results into predefined categories, but iBoogie comes up with categories based on the topic. Those topics can be useful suggestions to focus or broaden your search.
Still, when a patient wants health information, my favorite search engine is:
healthfinder: Consumer Health Information Search:
http://www.healthfinder.gov/search/
healthfinder's search focuses results just to government websites, and to 300 highly selected ones, excluding professional level information for results targeted just to consumers. This is a great way to find appropriate information without a lot of digging or sorting through results.
Posted by pfa at May 9, 2006 09:11 PM
Comments
http://www.healthfinder.gov/search/about.asp link don't work
Posted by: in@drugs-about.com at April 26, 2007 02:20 PM
Thanks! I fixed it. Link has been changed to:
Posted by: pfa at April 26, 2007 03:34 PM
Login to leave a comment. Create a new account.