Volume 14, Number 4: August 2006
Don't be health foolish.
Use free & easy Healthwise®.
If you're reading this sentence, you're a person who wants health information. The fact is that most of us do, at one time or another-no matter how healthy we are. I wonder if this is an allergy or a sinus infection? What can I do for my child with measles? Will the osteoporosis test hurt? Could I be having a migraine? Do I really need this new prescription? Good questions. And many more arise daily, from the simple to the complex, about routine tests or life-saving treatment.
How do you get well-researched answers? How can you be smart about your own health care? Besides asking health professionals-who can't consult 24/7-there's always the Internet . . . a whole lot of Internet . . . millions of pages of information, from the sound to the silly.
Don't get confused. Get to Healthwise®, the incredible online resource available to any CHP member through CHPConnect.
The nonprofit Healthwise® Knowledgebase is rigorously reviewed by an independent medical advisory board of some 90 specialists from the U.S., Europe, and Canada. It's up-to-date, evidence-based, unbiased, and much more than a health encyclopedia. It's designed for real people making real health decisions.
Topics, Tests, Meds, & Support
The amazingly comprehensive Healthwise® makes searching simple. Type a word into the search box. Or take a look at a list of items, alphabetically or by category. Healthwise® conveniently groups information into four common-sense areas:
- health topics (from illnesses to symptoms to wellness)
- medical tests and exams
- medications (nonprescription, too)
- support (health organizations and consumer groups)
Nice Features, Too
In addition to plain language, Healthwise® offers many helpful illustrations, indicated by a camera icon.
Just click to see the spine's parts, or healthy bone, or the steps in a colonoscopy.
With so much information available, a great feature is "customizing" contents for printing. If you're researching osteoporosis, for example, Healthwise® lets you check which topics you want to print (from "cause" to "prevention" to targeted topics like "Raloxifene for osteoporosis") and also whether to include images in your document. You can create a very personal health library!
Practical Help with Health Choices
The Decision Point feature is essential to Healthwise®'s consumer-focused mission. For example, "Should I have a DEXA test to diagnose osteoporosis?" is one of many key decisions weighed step-by-step. Healthwise® does not tell you what to do, but it guides you through important issues with unbiased information. After becoming more informed, you can work in partnership with your doctor.
Other practical, personal aids abound in Healthwise®: illness risk questionnaires, lists of pros and cons for a procedure or a medicine, descriptions of how medical exams actually feel, what to do if you a miss a dose of a particular medicine.
Healthwise® is about your wisdom as a health consumer. Get wise to it today. Log into your CHPConnect account, or register easily at www.capitalhealth.com, and make Healthwise® a part of your healthy life.