This guide is for Prof. Cruz's Medical Terminology class.
For your research assignment, you will need to find the following information about your chosen disease:
Gale Virtual Reference Library - medical topics
This database is a large collection of reference resources - mostly encyclopedias - that will give a good overview and background information.
Credo Reference - medical topics
This is another database of reference resources, similar to the one above. Also a good source for overviews and background information.
For more in-depth information - if you want to learn more than the reference articles can provide, check out our selection of books by doing a library search in OneSearch and then filtering your results for "books":
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)The CDC is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Within the CDC there are many more specific centers, institutes, and offices.
In addition to studying chronic and infectious diseases, they are concerned about the public health effects of environmental dangers to health, birth defects, safety and health on the job, and injury prevention.
For this assignment, the most helpful part of their website is Diseases and Conditions. If you don't see your disease listed under "popular topics", use their A-Z list to find your disease.
The Mayo ClinicThe Mayo Clinic is a well-respected non-profit organization that conducts research, provides health care, runs a medical school, and offers other forms of education and training for doctors.
For this assignment, the most helpful part of their website is Diseases and Conditions.
Medline PlusMedLine Plus is a resource that belongs to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (part of the U.S. federal government). It is there to educate the public.
For this assignment, the most helpful page on their site is Health Topics. You can search for your disease in several ways: by the part of the body it affects, OR by the type of condition it is, OR use the A-Z list to find it by name.
World Health OrganizationThe World Health Organization is part of the United Nations. They do many things to promote health and prevent and fight disease around the world.
This site is especially useful for finding world-wide statistics and information on populations affected and treatments used internationally.
For this assignment, the most helpful part of their website is the Health Topics page.
UNAIDS is part of the United Nations. If your disease is HIV/AIDS, helpful parts of their website for this assignment include:
fact sheet, which lists quick statistics (which need more context to be understood well).
The American Diabetes Association is a very large non-profit organization that includes many doctors, nurses, and other health care providers, as well as members who have diabetes and their families. They fund research for the prevention and cure of diabetes, hold conferences and publish journals for the exchange of information about diabetes, and advocate for laws and policies that protect the rights of people with diabetes.
For this assignment, the best page to start is their diabetes basics page.
The American Heart Association is a large non-profit organization that funds research, advocates for health policies, and provides information for the public about cardiovascular disease. (They have also merged with the American Stroke Association.) For this assignment, their medical conditions page would be the most helpful.
