A One-Stop Library of Health Information
Laurushealth.com
Background: VHA Inc., a consortium of about 1,800 community-owned hospitals, founded Laurushealth after studying what consumers want to know before coming in to see a doctor. The site is meant to be a comprehensive, one-stop library of general health information, as well as a patient guide.
What Works: The descriptions of disease, treatments and medications are as clear and readable as any you’ll find on the Internet, and as all-inclusive. One of the strongest features is a catalog of medical tests. Are you scheduled for a bone scan, an MRI, an abdominal ultrasound? Here you’ll learn what the test is, why it’s done, what the risks are and even what it feels like. This is exactly the kind of thing that’s nice to know before visiting the hospital--and hard to find on many other health content pages. Laurushealth also has a page of newly approved drugs that is much clearer than the Food and Drug Administration’s own listings, as well as a vast store of links to support organizations, from the Aarskog Syndrome Family Support Unit to the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Society.
What Doesn’t: This is not the best place to learn about the latest research on diseases. Though medical news stories are posted regularly, most of the pages on diseases emphasize the basics and don’t fully explore experimental therapies, or basic research. To take one example, many men with advanced prostate cancer have found an herbal formulation called PC SPES to be an effective therapy. You’ll find mention of this in the site’s news archive; but you won’t find any evaluation of it in the discussion of prostate cancer treatments. And Laurushealth is strictly a one-way conversation: There are no chat rooms or message boards.
