Navigate the Healthcare System Resources

Websites

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has helpful online guides:

• Your Guide to Choosing Quality Healthcare.
• Choosing and Using a Health Plan.
• Checkup on Health Insurance Choices.

The American Cancer Society provides the NexProfiler Treatment Tools. This tool feeds details of your condition into a search of the research literature and gives statistical results for various treatments. It then suggests topics for you to discuss with your provider.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield offers Healthcare Facts

Complementary and Alternative Medicine on Pubmed

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Learn about your eligibility for low-cost insurance at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Consumer Reports Health has a guide to making health decisions.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

FDA's Recalls and Safety Alerts

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The Harvard Medical School offers lists of questions to ask for specific situations.

Institute of Medicine Study. (1999) To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System.

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) brochure that provides information on how you can avoid being the victim of medical errors, Speak Up: Help Prevent Errors In Your Care.

Kaiser Family Foundation. Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace, 2004 Update.

The Medical Library Association has a very simple glossary that translates medical terms into everyday language. The glossary is available in Spanish.

Medline Plus offers a number of articles, including Getting the Most Out of Your A Visit to Your Doctor and Tips for Talking to Healthcare Professionals. There are a number of resources for specific health situations, such as cancer and heart disease.

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

National Center for Health Statistics. Fact Sheet: Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000.

National Coalition on Health Care. Health Insurance Cost.

The National Institute on Aging suggests ways to discuss health concerns, medicines, and issues important to older people.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NCCIH offers information on paying for complementary therapies. Paying for Complementary Health Approaches.

NIH National Library of Medicine

Prepared Patient is an interactive website designed to help people find good health care and make the most of it.

Pubmed, a website used to research articles.

Books

American Medical Association. American Medical Association Guide to Talking to Your Doctor. John Wiley and Sons, NY. 2001.

Edward T. Creagan (Mayo Clinic physician). How NOT to Be My Patient. Health Communications, Inc. FL. 2003.

John Knowles. Doing Better and Feeling Worse. W.W. Norton & Company: New York. 1977.

Parker-Pope, T. Wall Street Journal. 2005. Published in the Minneapolis Star & Tribune:

• Cancer Diagnosis: What to Ask Next (Monday, January 24, 2005)
• Check Your Heart Risk With These Questions (Tuesday, January 25, 2005)
• Surgery Ahead: What Do You Ask the Doctor? (Wednesday, January 26, 2005)

Bernie Seigal MD and Yosaif August. Help Me to Heal: A Practical Guidebook for Patients, Visitors and Caregivers. Hay House, Inc., CA. 2003.

Soden, Kevin and Christine Dumas. Special Treatment: Ten Way to Get the Same Special Health Care Your Doctor Gets. Berkley Publishing. NY. 2003.