While this quiz appears to be well-researched and informative, is it from an organization committed to providing reliable health information on the Web? Looking at HealthEd’s website, none of the people listed on its “Leadership” page have an M.D. or medical Ph.D. degree (at the time of this writing).

Information literacy includes having the skills to evaluate online information to determine its accuracy, relevance, source, etc. One way to do this is to apply the C.R.A.A.P. Test: try to determine the information’s:

• Currency: timeliness of the information.
• Relevance: importance of the information for your needs.
• Authority: source of the information.
• Accuracy: reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.
• Purpose: reason the information exists.

One way to sort through the tsunami of health information is to look for the HONcode logo (at left). The Health on the Net Foundation “was founded to encourage the dissemination of quality health information for patients and professionals and the general public, and to facilitate access to the latest and most relevant medical data through the use of the internet. The HONcode certification is an ethical standard aimed at offering quality health information. It demonstrates the intent of a website to publish transparent information. The transparency of the website will improve the usefulness and objectivity of the information and the publishment of correct data.”

Other sites that can provide reliable health information include MedlinePlus, major academic medical institutions, and other trusted sources.

What reliable online resources for medical information do you use? Tell us about it!

The U.S. government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Ad Council have teamed up to launch a national health campaign aimed at empowering Latinos to ask their doctors questions.

Television, radio, print and Web ads in $30 million worth of donated advertising space will run in Latino-centric media showing people with ailments such as a bad back getting conflicting advice in places such as the laundromat and the barbershop before going to the doctor (from Fox News Latino).

The campaign is called Conoce las Preguntas (Know the Questions), and the advertisements direct viewers to the campaign’s website, which provides a kind of “roadmap” to a doctor’s visit. For example, it encourages patients to be clear on prescription instructions, and offers suggested follow-up questions to medical diagnoses. And it includes humorous videos such as this one showing  one Latino man asking for advice on an earache, and getting a variety of answers. (Click on the triangle-shaped “play” button to show the video.)

Video Credit: REVOLUCIÓN

Here are a few examples of what’s being discussed (tweeted about) on health literacy (#healthliteracy) on Twitter:

• The non-profit organization Health Literacy Missouri (@HealthLitMO) just published a paper titled “Health Literacy Essential to Successful Implementation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)” bySusan Kendig, JD, MSN and Arthur Culbert, PhD. The paper points out that our current health system’s incentives for health care organizations “rewards volume and intensity of services, resulting in fragmentation and higher costs with little attention to value.” It goes on to document how health literacy is directly related to health outcomes.
• @apdolan has sought the thoughts and input of others on how the new Google+ might be used for health activism for an upcoming blog posting.
• @alixefloyd cheered and linked to an article in the NY Times about how more medical schools are screening their applicants for people skills.
• @ACUnderserved publicized information about a “Health Literacy Innovators Award Contest” sponsored by Health Literacy Innovations, a privately held company that “creates tools to help eliminate medical mistakes and confusion due to low health literacy.”

At first, even this author was skeptical of Twitter. But when one can sample what is of current interest on any given topic instantly, it becomes clear the value this platform has.

What topics do you follow on Twitter? If you have used it for research or to take the pulse of people on a particular subject, how helpful have you found it to be? Tell us!

Satish Misra, MD, of the iMedicalApps blog has a two-part series of posts examining this issue, and asking for opinions from readers. The first posting points out:

In the past ten years, there has been a growing movement to restrict marketing of drugs to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. As a result of programs like the PharmFree project, traditional marketing avenues like free samples, sponsored dinners, and so on have become far more limited. And so naturally, pharmaceutical companies have looked to new avenues through which to reach physicians.

Using Epocrates as an example, Misra evenhandedly explains how free medical apps allow pharmaceutical companies to support physicians in their work while doing market research and sales at the same time. In his second article, Misra briefly examines Skyscape and several of its free apps that allow “life science companies…to reach thousands of HCPs in a new venue and format.”

As a library working with students in the healthcare professions (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, etc.), one of our goals is to help them develop information literacy skills: the ability to critically evaluate information provided via the Web and other electronic formats. When presented with information, it is important to apply a certain set of evaluative principles, as represented by the term “the C.R.A.A.P. Test:”

• Currency: timeliness of the information
• Relevance: importance of the information for your needs.
• Authority: source of the information
• Accuracy: reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content.
• Purpose: the reason this information exists

Such an evaluation system should be applied to “free” medical apps as well.

The Eccles Health Sciences Library has a list of free and fee medical apps for all of the major mobile platforms. Do you have a favorite application? Tell us about it!