Beyond WebMD: An Educational Series

It is widely known that the internet contains an abundance of information surrounding the medical treatment of disease. People use the internet to search for medical treatment solutions more today than ever before. Websites like WebMD are being advertised during primetime television hours and they dominate the health search environment. Even though, as librarians, we recognize these commercial sites as valid sources of medical information, we should not become complacent with our ability and desire to help people find what they indeed need when it comes to medical treatment information. With the baby boomers beginning to reach the age where health concerns are becoming more of a focal point, being able to navigate this web of information will continue to be an important library service. For a myriad of reasons, people will more frequently desire to intelligently discuss treatment options with their physicians. In many cases, the reference librarian at the local public library will be asked to assist in this search for quality medical information. The public librarian will not be armed with expensive subscriptions to powerful medical databases and will have to operate at the ground level with information that the public library patron can access as well. It is important that the reference librarian be able to convey to the patron that he or she can in fact “go beyond WebMD” to locate freely accessible, evidence based information that will enable them to review the same disease state information and treatment options that in many instances their physicians are looking at.