"...a valuable guide to the reputable sites...Overall, How to Find Health
Information on the Internet is informative and well presented, and will provide
a valuable guide for consumers and professionals alike."
The Lancet
"...the advantage of How to Find Health Information
on the Internet is that the entries are well written and give excellent descriptive
information about the web sites, listservs or newsgroups...Overall, it points
a person to many established, credible sites that should be a good start on
a search for health information...Overall I would recommend How to Find Health
Information on the Internet for consumer health collections."
Consumer Connections,
newsletter published by the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section
of the Medical Library Association
"This work, which the publisher plans to update regularly, enables quick
and easy access to a large quantity of topical health information for the
lay consumer that is useful, stable, and free of charge. The writing is clear
with concise documentation...Valuable resource. Recommended for all academic
audiences, undergraduate through faculty."
CHOICE: Current Reviews
for Academic Libraries
"Journalist Maxwell goes the vital step beyond enumeration to describe
and evaluate Web sites. He also identifies, when possible, the creator of
each Web site and the authority and credentials of that individual or organization...Tests
of listed Web sites show that this printed book has done a very good job of
keeping pace with the ever changing Web. In both public and academic libraries
this will be a very helpful substitute for fishing expeditions through catchall
search engines."
James Rettig, Rettig
on Reference
"Maxwell's book helps us cut through much of the clutter, providing starting
points for answers to virtually any health question...(Maxwell is) one of
the nation's most accomplished online researchers..."
Sam Meddis, Online Technology
Editor at USA TODAY.com
"This title will undoubtedly be a stand-by on the ready reference
shelves of public, academic, larger school, and consumer health libraries,
simply because it is the best of the lot that have appeared in the past year
or so...One can only hope for frequent revisions."
Health Care on the Internet
"If you need health information, this book can save you lots of time
wading through the thousands of hits you'd get from a search engine."
ONLINE
"It does not pretend to list all the health
sites on the Internet, but focuses on the ones that are of real use...very
useful as a starting point for the general public as well as healthcare professionals...If
you are a seasoned medical Internet surfer you will still find this book handy
and if you are just starting off then the sites listed will give you a boost
in finding the information you want."
Family Practice
"Those with any health concerns are wise to consult this book, produced
by an investigative reporter with an eye for quackery. It's solid reporting
and a good resource."
James Derk, The Evansville
Courier
"Given that the various popular search engines index so many sites, is
such a book necessary? The answer is definitely yes, because, firstly, the
search engines list resources indiscriminately (and in very large numbers),
and secondly, because it is very difficult to tell from a long list of search
results whether the resources are authoritative or useful...Bruce Maxwell
is an investigative journalist rather than a doctor or medical researcher,
but his experience as a net researcher allows for confidence in his choices."
Internet Resources Newsletter
"Author Maxwell offers this book as the most complete, reliable, and
up-to-date guide available...A detailed and comprehensive index makes the
guide even more useful."
Link-Up
"This guide provides a highly selective, manageable, annotated list of
health sites and includes sections on specific diseases, preventative medicine,
and health care issues. Particularly valuable in the guide is the introduction
which provides guidelines on how to judge the quality of health information
on the Internet."
Current Cites
"Finding specific information on the Internet is getting to be about
as easy as finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. My recent search
for 'cancer' on Alta Vista yielded almost 2.5 million references and 'cancer
treatment' weighed in with 28,000. To find anything helpful within this maze
of data is clearly a daunting task. Fortunately, it has just become very much
easier with the publication of Bruce Maxwell's How to Find Health Information
on the Internet...An excellent 25-page index rounds out this gold mine of
information. A MUST if you are looking for free health information on the
Internet!"
International Health
News
"Most families keep some kind of medical reference around the house,
whether it's a thick volume published by the American Medical Association
or just one of those paperback books that explain prescription drugs. Well,
here's another volume to add to the collection: How to Find Health Information
on the Internet...In my mind, the price of this book is well worth it."
David Hoye, The Arizona
Republic
"A wonderful source book...The editorial comments
per site provide useful information, tips, and features of particular interest
such as who sponsors the site, links to other sites, and whether the site
contains full-text articles...Useful and potentially hard to find sites for
governmental agencies, information centers, clearinghouses, office and publications
centers also are provided. This book is recommended as a useful addition to
the Internet researcher's medical/health resources library."
Medical Reference Services
Quarterly
"Author Bruce Maxwell has put his skills as an investigative
journalist to good use in producing a guide that will save any person looking
for health information on the Internet from the frustration of looking through
the results pulled up by your garden variety search engine...A particularly
valuable feature is the introduction which provides thoughtful guidelines
on how to judge the quality of health information on the Internet...Given
the quality of this first edition, I will certainly be watching for future
ones."
Issues in Science and
Technology Librarianship
"One of the most important components of this book is Maxwell's
guide to evaluating the quality of health information on the Internet. Maxwell
gives the layperson a step-by-step guide to evaluating a site's usefulness,
bias, motivations, and timeliness...In short, this book is easy-to-use, well
researched, and timely. It would be a good addition to public library collections
and other libraries that serve the medical interests of the public."
E-STREAMS
"With the decline in interest in shotgun 'yellow page' volumes, this
level of reviewed and higher quality directory information may be very welcome
to the growing audience of Web users."
Rob Slade
