Prevention, wellness, and disease information
- CISMeF-patients: Sites médicaux francophones à destination des patients et de leurs familles |FRENCH|
A directory of French-language sites from Canada, Belgium, and France. - College of Family Physicians of Canada - Patient Education Program / Collège des médecins de famille du Canada - Programme d'éducation des patients
Factsheets with summaries of common problems in family medicine. - Health Guide Services to Citizens, Quebec Portal |FRENCH|
"Simple, practical, and reliable information to help you deal with a non-urgent health problem and become better prepared to use Quebec health-care services. It also presents suggestions for you to play an active role with regard to prevention." - Healthwise Knowledgebase
Contains comprehensive, current, evidence-based information for consumers, including health topics, medical tests, medications and complementary & alternative medicine. - Healthy Ontario / Santé Ontario |FRENCH|
This site, from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion is a large, bilingual site providing drug and disease as well as health promotion information reviewed by health professionals. - JAMA Patient Pages - (information available in English and Spanish)
The Journal of the American Medical Association's patient pages are listed here for convenient browsing and printing. - Lab Tests Online
For descriptions of medical tests - what they look for, and how they work. - MDConsult
This resource includes a section with patient handouts that can be customized for individual patients before being printed. - MEDLINEplus (U.S. National Library of Medicine) |SPANISH|
A directory of disease and drug information from reliable American associations. Includes "Easy-To-Read" links and interactive tutorials for many diseases and conditions. - NOAH: New York Online Access to Health |SPANISH|
A directory of health and wellness information from primarily American websites. Includes "Read Me First" links for easy-to-understand information. - Sexualityandu.ca |FRENCH|
A Canadian website for teens, adults, and health professionals about all issues surroudning human sexuality. - TRIP Database: Turning Research Into Practice - Patient Information Leaflets
This Welsh site is a search engine retrieving information, particularly evidence-based information, from over 50 sites, including 4,200 patient information leaflets. - UpToDate
This database includes patient information handouts for many topics. Some of which are freely accessible. - Women's Health Matters (Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre) |FRENCH|
This website contains original information pertaining to women's health as well as a searchable database of quality print, electronic, and multimedia information sources.
Decision tools for patients
- Familydoctor.org - Search by Symptom
- Healthline Symptom Search
- Mayo Clinic Symptom Checker
- MEDgle Symptomatix
- Ottawa Health Institute - Patient Decision Aids |FRENCH|
Specific diseases
Some major websites with disease information
- The Arthritis Society |FRENCH|
- Canadian Cancer Society / Société canadienne du cancer |FRENCH|
- Canadian Liver Foundation |FRENCH|
- Canadian Lung Association |FRENCH|
- Diabetes Quebec |FRENCH|
- Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada |FRENCH|
- Hepatitis C Society of Canada
- The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada: Patient Pamphlet Library |FRENCH|
Rare diseases
- Orphanet English | French | German | Italian | Spanish
Multicultural health information
- Cancer Index - Resources in languages other than English
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health - Multilingual Resources
- Consumer Health Brochures in Multiple Languages (The 24 Languages Project)
- EQUIP - Information in languages other than English and for ethnic groups (NHS, UK)
- EthnoMed - Patient Education Resources
- Health Translations Directory (Victorian Government Health Information, AU)
- HICUP - Health Information in Chinese Uniting Patients
- Health Promotion Hertfordshire - Ethnic - Non-English Languages (NHS, UK)
- Multicultural and Multilingual Health Information (California Health Literacy Initiative)
- Other Language Resources (National Network of Libraries of Medicine, US)
- SPIRAL - Selected Patient Information Resources in Asian Languages
- Health Information in Inuktitut (University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries)
Drug information and alternative therapies
Environmental Health
- Guide to Less Toxic Products (Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia)
Lists alternative products for personal care, household cleaning, baby care, and household pest control. - Household Products Database: Health and Safety Information on Household Products
A searchable database of common household products which lists all ingredients. Can also be searched by chemical ingredient. - Skin Deep: (Environmental Working Group)
News about the safety of popular health & beauty brands
Consumer health information centres
- Centre d'Information sur la Santé de l'Enfant
Hôpital Sainte-Justine - Jewish General Hospital Patient and Family Resource Centre
Sir Mortimer B. Davis Jewish General Hospital - MCH Family Resource Library
Montreal Children’s Hospital, MUHC - MUHC Patient Resource Centre
Montreal General Hospital, MUHC - Neuro-Patient Resource Centre
Montreal Neurological Hospital, McGill University Health Centre - RVH Patient Resource Centre
Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University Health Centre
Regional health services
- Québec Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux
- Rechercher un établissement (Agence de développement de réseaux locaux de services de santé et de services sociaux)
Print resources
- Wendy Patrick Collection - McGill Life Sciences Library
- Griffith's Instructions for Patients (7th edition, 2005)
Quality, reliability, and readability of health information
- Consumer Health Information: A Comparison - Specific Features of Fee-based Databases
- Medical Information on the Internet: Guide for Health Reporters and Consumers - A tutorial from the Medical Library Association