Making medical fact-finding easy

Making medical fact-finding easy : "Faced with a minor illness or major health-care crisis, many people turn to the Internet for information. But with the misinformation that absolutely anyone can post on the Web, and the medical jargon, the task can be daunting. Physicians provide basic information, but they don't have time to answer every question.

Medical librarians have master's degrees or doctorates, often with special certification in health care. They are trained to distinguish good information from bad. Major hospitals have offered medical library services to physicians on staff for years. A new trend is the development of libraries that offer medical information to consumers.

"Librarians can save consumers time because they have a wealth of information resources available to them that are not available to the general public," says Jean Shipman, president of the national Medical Library Association in Chicago. "

I feel every hospital should have a patient education library ! Not only will this save the doctor's time
( because he can refer the patient or family to the library for more information); it will also help to keep patients much happier, because they are better informed !