Symptoms
Mayo Clinic Symptom Checker
a very basic breakdown of what could be causing various common symptoms. Definitely NOT an alternative to seeing a doctor, and NOT recommended for hypochondriacs.
Drugs A-Z
- Safe Medication – official drug info, the same as you usually find in the packet
- Pill Identifier - for investigating pills that have left their original container. The rest of drugs.com is full of great info.
- RXList - search by name, keyword, letters written on the pill. The Patient Information and Adverse Reactions sections for each drug make interesting reading.
Legit Online Pharmacies
Rule of thumb – if they don’t ask for a prescription, and your local pharmacy would, then they aren’t worth the risk.
- Walgreens – USA deliveries only
- Chemist Warehouse – to fill Australian prescriptions cheaply. Also try Pharmacy Online
- Pharmacy Direct – for New Zealand, ships globally
- Chemist Direct – for UK folk, also ships anywhere
Merck
Now available online, the Merck Manual is the most widely used medical text in the world. Written by over 300 experts, it covers all but the most obscure disorders. While The Merck Manual provides medical information to health care professionals, The Home Edition was written for patients, their families, and all non-health care professionals interested in learning more about illnesses, their diagnosis, and their treatment – written in plain English.
More Resources
Medline Pub Med
The site the medical professionals use – lots of ailments pictured as well. Medline is the world’s largest database of peer-reviewed health articles. Search for free. Full-text articles available for purchase.
- Patients Like Me - community and data-sharing for people with the same symptoms & illnesses
- Antibiotic Guide - from the John Hopkins Division of Infectious Diseases
- Free Medical Journals - over 4800 journals online
- KidsHealth for Kids - the largest site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children. Also pages for teens and parents
Locate a Health Professional:
- AIM DocFinder - combined database that directly sources data from state government licensing boards. DocFinder contains the licensing background and disciplinary information of physicians and other health care practitioners. NOTE: Click on the state name, not the link to the state’s Medical Board
- Health Grades - sometimes contains address info that the others do not list
- Ophthalmologists / Eye Doctors
- Nursing World - nursing associations
- Doc Info - get disciplinary information on doctors for $9.95, from the Federation of State Medical Boards
- Federation of State Medical Boards - website & contact details for each state
- Questionable Doctors - free list of disciplined doctors for 17 states. Details for every state available for a fee
- Quack Watch - 1400 pages dedicated to ending health fraud and quackery