Patient UK

This week's website concerns yesterday's BBC Health article with the headline:

Wheeze 'link' to baby milk powder.

The article explains research conducted by the University of Birmingham which suggests that prolonged exposure to infant milk powder can increase the risk of breathing problems.

Patient UK describes itself as a resource which aims to be:

"a reliable and comprehensive source of health and diseasse information, mainly aimed at the UK general public, but of interest to all."

The site provides several unique features, gathering news from various mainstream organisations and offering the consumer a range of options:

• Visit the article source:  Users are provided with a link to the source article.
  
• Discuss this:  Users are linked to a discussion board where they can discuss the topic with other interested and opinionated readers.
  
• Read background:  Patient UK performs a search within its own online database, producing articles and explanations relating the the the main news story.

The search funtion alone makes the site an indispensible resource, removing the need for consumers to either search through years of archived material or enter search criteria.  When searching for the latest medical news online and detailed explanations, Patient UK should be ignored at your peril.

NetDoctor.co.uk

Last week I was hopefully searching for a UK health news resource to rival that of Web MD and although I'm not quite there yet, I'm certainly getting closer.

This week's website is the UK independent health website NetDoctor.co.uk and refers to yesterday's article with the headline:

BMI may predict risk of aggressive breast cancer.

The article concerns research conducted by a team at the University of Texas who claim that body mass index (BMI) may prove useful in determining the prognosis of women with breast cancer.

Although NetDoctor is a fairly limited resource, in the majority of cases merely providing basic articles, it does have several useful features.  The site has a comprehensive and detailed encyclopaedia aswell as an advice section and discussion boards.  By far one of the most useful features however is the provision of links within the article body to encyclopaedia entries explaining key terms (see cancer link below).

NetDoctor fails however to provide many of the features common to those sites reviewed in earlier posts as a result of which the site will probably be considered by many as resource of last resort.

Web MD: Better Information. Better Health.

This week's webiste is the US medical guide Web MD and refers to yesterday's article with the headine:

Eating Breakfast May Beat Teen Obesity.

The article concerns research published by the American Academy of Pediatrics which claims that eating breakfast every day may be the first step in fighting teenage obesity.

Despite having a mainly American focus, Web MD provides a fantastic online multimedia resource, producing its own content from a range of referenced sources.  Each article is reviewed and edited by a medical professional, ensuring quality and accuracy throughout.

The site provides a wealth of multimedia content, providing video footage, related advertisements, 'must-see' links and options to share the article online through social networking sites such as Facebook.

If only such a resource was available for UK medical news.  If one exists I haven't found it yet.