HINARI/Health Information
on the Internet
(module 1.3 Part A)
MODULE 1.3
Health Information on the Internet
Instructions - This part of the:
 course is a PowerPoint demonstration intended
to introduce you to Health Information on the
Internet
 module is off-line and is intended as an
information resource for reference use.
Table of Contents – Part A
• Evaluating Health Information on the
Internet
• Grey Literature - definition
• Health Organization Sources –, intergovernmental, governmental and nongovernmental agencies
• Databases and Library Catalogs
• Search Engines and Gateways
• Discussion groups
• E-Journal resources
Table of Contents – Part B
• Sampling of resources
• Consumer Health/Patient Education
• HIV/AIDS
• Pharmacy and Pharmacology
• Public Health
• Reproductive Health
• Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases
• Managing Internet Resources
Evaluating Web Information
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Criteria for Evaluation
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Accuracy
Authority
Currency
Coverage
Objectivity
Criteria for evaluating Health Information
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghealthinformation.html
Evaluation Checklist
Evaluation Checklist - Short Version
Website URL:
Criteria
1. Validity/Relevance/Scope of Content (statement of purpose, description of
contents/scope/limits and intended audiences, citing of sources, meets users
needs, compliments other information and fits into broader field of knowledge)
2. Identification/Authority of Author/Sponsor (name, position, and training,
contact information; professional or organizational credentials)
3. Site Access and Usability (ease of connection and downloading, sponsor of
the site, access restrictions, freedom of use/replication, cost limitation,
software/hardware restrictions, text only option)
4. Information Structure, Design and Aesthetics (design meets users' needs,
clear and descriptive title and headings, clarity of graphics and icons, readability,
grammar and language editing, email address links, any irritating variables, the
use of crea
5. Navigation within the Document (organizational structures, menu design,
ease of navigation, indexes, tables of contents, concise pages, built in search
functions, online "help")
6. Quality of the Links (usefulness of links, organization scheme, visibility and
understandability, relevance and appropriateness, methodology of selecting links)
Total Score
LR 03/04
5 (excellent) to 1 (poor)
Website accrediting organization
Google Search: Dengue Fever
Grey Literature
• Used by the librarians, and medical and research
professionals and students
• Is a body of materials that cannot be found easily
through conventional channels – e.g. indexed
databases or publishers’ lists
• Examples include technical reports from
governmental, inter-governmental and nongovernmental agencies or research groups, working
papers from research groups or preprints
• Includes valuable information for the delivery of
healthcare and policy development
Grey Literature continued
• Is difficult to identify and acquire for librarians
and potential users
• Lacks strict bibliographic control - basic
information such as author, publication date or
publishing body and location may not readily
available
• Is increasingly found on the Internet but can be
difficult to identify, access and evaluate
Free Health Resources on the Internet
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Ready reference material e.g. encyclopedias
Library catalogues (WHO and regional offices)
Journals and books (see other modules)
Bulletins, newsletters
Governmental, intergovernmental and nongovernmental information resources
• Research databases
• Publishers’ databases
• Discussion groups
Inter-governmental Agencies
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WHO
WHO/Western Pacific Region
PAHO
UNAIDS
UNFPA
The WHO site contains current
news information plus links to
statistics, publications, programs,
health topics and guidelines.
This the initial page of the
WHO/Pacific Region website. It
contains similar info as the WHO
site but specific to this region.
This the initial page of the Pan
American Health Organization
website. It includes significant
‘country specific’ information.
The UNAIDS webpage is the site of
an inter-organization consortium. It
includes significant epidemiological,
statistical, logistical and clinical
information on HIV/AIDS.
The UNFPA webpage is devoted to
health and other issues for women.
Note the various topics in the
POPULATION ISSUES column.
Health Organizations Resources –
Governmental agencies
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
U.S.
• National Institutes of Health, U.S.
• National Library of Medicine, U.S.
Although geared toward the U.S.
population, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has a
significant amount of relevant
information about global health.
We have opened the U.S.
National Institutes of Health
webpage. Note how it is
highlighting it’s Innovation for
Global Development which
discusses scientific advances
for health throughout the world.
The U.S. National Library of
Medicine is another governmental
agency involved in global health.
It develops and maintains the
PubMed and other databases.
This is the Health Information
page of the National Library of
Medicine (NLM). It includes links
many health information
resources besides PubMed.
www.nlm.nih.gov/hinfo.html
Non-governmental Agencies
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American International Health Alliance
Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine
Family Health International
INASP
Popline
This the American International
Health Alliance webpage. It
describes the organization’s
projects which are geared toward
strengthening health systems in
low-income countries.
Family Health International is a
women and reproductive health ngo
with extensive projects in many the
developing countries. The next slide
highlights the initial documents
listed on the Resources page.
INASP is an ngo that focuses on
communication, knowledge and
networking projects in low-income
countries. View the What We Do
list for information on the
organization’s key projects.
Many tropical medicine organizations have
useful projects/ documents relating to
global health. This example is the Institute
of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. View the
broad topics for further information.
This the Diseases, Disorders and
Related Topics gateway. Users can
link to specific websites by keyword
searching, alphabetical listing or
broad subject categories.
Databases and Library Catalogs
• Global Index Medicus/Global Health
Library
• PubMed
• Source Bibliographic Database:
International Health and Disability
This is the searchable platform for the
Global Index Medicus/WHO. It is a
compilation of all the WHO and
Regional Libraries catalogs.
Seaching is via keyword and contains
links to many full-text documents.
This the PubMed contains over
21,000,000 indexed articles. The
search results contain links to free
articles. In the past 10 years, the
scope has been broadened to
include more journals covering
global health.
This the Source’s Resource
Library contains information
about international health and
disability – including links to
many full-text articles. Note the
Quick Search (keyword) option.
Search Engines
• Google – includes general information
(previously discussed)
• Google Scholar – academic information
(previously discussed)
• HealthMash
• Scirus
This the Health Mash Search Engine
combines Web 2.0 universal search and
discovery technology with Semantic Web
Concepts in a search interface. It
contains links to journal articles, books,
blogs and other Internet resources.
This the SCIRUS is a search engine
developed by Elsevier that is available
on the Internet and includes journal
articles, books, scientists’ homepages
and institutional repository information.
We have completed a type 2 diabetes
AND developing countries search. The
Journal sources include ScienceDirect
which is commercial but also PubMed
Central and BioMed Central. Note
also the links to web based material.
Gateways
• Essential Health Links
• Health Sciences Online (HSO)
Health Sciences Online is a searchable portal with over
50,000 reviewed articles on courses, references, guidelines
and other learning resources. It was launched in late 2008
and includes the Google Translation option.
We have completed a type 2
diabetes AND developing countries
search. Note the Refine Resource
Type and other options.
Essential Health Links
FHI/SATELLIFE Essential Health
Links gateway contains over 750
links to relevant WWW sites for the
health community in developing and
transitional countries. Note the
inclusion of the HonCode logo.
This displays the Essential Health
Links Table of Contents for Library
and Publishing Support and
Specific Health Resources.
Discussion Groups
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Dgroups
FHI/Satellife Global Discussion Groups
GHDonline
HIFA2015
Dgroups is an organization with
multiple development-related
discussion groups. Click on Join a
group to view the complete list and
also register for specific groups.
FHI/Satellife has a series of
Global Discussion Groups.
Click on the specific group to
view its contents and register.
GHD Online is an online platform of communities
where health professionals share proven practices,
connect with colleagues and find resources for
improving outcomes in resource limited settings. Note
the communities listed on the initial page.
HIFA2015 is an international
discussion group and resource
geared toward the health information
needs of low-income countries.
Registration is required but free.
This is the end of Module 5 Part A
There is a Work Book to accompany this part of
the module. The workbook will take you through
a live session covering the topics included in this
demonstration with working examples.
Updated 2012 03
E-journal resources
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Free Medical Journals
Directory of Open Access Journals
BioMed Central
PubMed Central
HighWire Press
PubMed search options
FreeMedicalJournals.com lists
medical journals sites that make their
content free to all users. Journals are
organized by speciality, title A-Z,
language and other listings.
The DOAJ lists all journals sites that
make their content available for free.
Journals are organized by title A-Z and
broad subject listings including Health
Sciences and Biology and Life Sciences.
BioMed Central is one of the principal open
access journal publishers. Access to all articles
are free as the authors pay a fee for the
publication of their articles (often waived for
authors from low-income countries). Journals
are listed by subject and article searching by a
keyword search engine.
PubMed Central
PubMed Central is a archive of articles that
have been deposited in this free repository.
Over 2.3 million articles are available. Access is
via journal A-Z listing and keyword searches for
articles are entered into the PMC search box.
HighWire Press website
• a portal to over 1,150 journals published
predominantly by learned societies
• Includes health-related journals - American Journal
of Public Health, Annals of the New York Academy
of Sciences and Journal of Bacteriology.
• via IP address, allows access to participating
journals from any computer within the country
• has a listing of the ‘journals free to developingeconomies’ that can be accessed directly from the
HighWire Press site:
highwire.stanford.edu/lists/devecon.dtl
This is the HighWire Press initial page. From this
site, we can locate articles or journal titles or
subjects and set up an email alert.
HighWire Press 3
The Free Access to Developing Economies link is
located on the initial page. Also of interest is the
Free full-text content link.
There is a link to both pages in the Other Free
Collections drop down menu on HINARI’s Full-text
Journals, databases and other resources page.
Note: You can access the HighWire Press
full text articles since this publisher
identifies computer (IP) addresses from
eligible countries. This is the ONLY
exception to not needing to use your
institution’s User Name and Password.
You now have entered the Free
Access to Developing Economies list
of HighWire Press.
As noted, the access is based on the
computer's IP Address and you can
go directly to the site using the url.
Within HighWire Press, we have
entered the Free Online Full-Text
Articles page.
HighWire Press 4
Note that some journals are a free
site and others have free articles after
a set period of time.
The HINARI eligible country access is
a different mix of titles.
M
The PubMed database is an excellent
source of Free full text articles. We
will complete the HIV AND pregnancy
search and then will apply the Free
full text available filter.
Note: If you are in HINARI/PubMed,
do not apply this filter because it will
eliminate all HINARI full-text articles.
In this example, the Free full text
available filter has been activated. The
search results are 2714 citations. If
you keep this filter on, it will limit all
future searches to Free full text articles.
Another option to is to use the Free
full text[sb] filter in the PubMed
search box. We will add this filter to
the malaria AND pregnancy search.
The Summary search results
have been displayed. We have
opened the Display Setting drop
down menu, checked the Abstract
option and clicked on Apply.
The search results are 2733
citations. In the abstract format,
you can access the full-text
articles by clicking on the icons.
This is the end of Module 5 Part A
There is a Work Book to accompany this
part of the module. The workbook will take
you through a live session covering the
topics included in this demonstration with
working examples.
Updated 2012 10