What Are the Benefits of Medline Patient Empowerment?

Accessing health-care information was once an arduous task for people outside the medical profession; however, with user-friendly websites such as MedlinePlus, patients have unlimited access to treatments, doctors and drug information. Part of the National Institutes of Health and a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus provides legitimate information meant to educate and empower health-care consumers.

Access to Health Information

• The website includes a medical dictionary.

  Perhaps the most effective benefit of Medline Plus in terms of patient empowerment is the education proffered the website's visitors. Patients often enter doctor appointments with a limited vocabulary. If they have a symptom as vague as "stomach pain," which has numerous causes, they can use.Medline Plus' Health Topics section, which breaks down ailments by body system, gender or age. For instance, by clicking on the "Systems" link, they can quickly access causes of abdominal pain, narrowing down the location and type of pain felt. Health Topics also provides information concerning treatments and therapy. Oftentimes, after a diagnosis, digesting all the information given by a doctor is impossible. With MedlinePlus, patients benefit from clear explanations provided when they have the ability to understand it. MedlinePlus also offers a medical dictionary serviced by Merriam Webster.

Detailed Explanations of Drugs and Supplements

• Drug and herb information is on the site.

  When doctors provide a diagnosis, oftentimes they offer several courses of treatment. Keeping multiple drug names, their benefits and side effects straight keeping can be as frustrating as the illness. With MedlinePlus' Drug and Supplement section, patients can search generic and name brands. For example, the website provides the Prozac's generic name, Fluoxetine, answers questions about missing a dose, offers reasons why the drug is prescribed and provides special precautions to take while on the medication. MedlinePlus also benefits people who choose herbs and supplements as medicinal therapy. Listed information in alphabetic order, the site provides details as generic as what an herb or supplement is and information as specific as how the herb or supplement interacts with other foods.

Visual and Interactive Tools

• Sometimes, simply reading information is not enough to understand a medical diagnosis or a treatment option fully. With this in mind, MedlinePlus offers a section of videos and tutorials for patient understanding. The interactive tutorial titled "Understanding Medical Words" educates patients about root words, ways to break up complex vocabulary and a quiz to test the content learned. If nervous about a pending surgery, patients may benefit from watching a video provided by MedlinePlus showing the procedure. The information available through videos empowers patients to ask questions and feel informed enough to participate better in a health discussion with their doctor.

Increase of Patient Confidence

• Having access to medical information can be difficult for even people with extensive education. Unfortunately, many low-income and low-literacy groups, simply don't have access to viable information. MedlinePlus gives patients the ability to understand their ailments and possible treatments. Available in English and Spanish, MedlinePlus seeks to empower Spanish-speaking people with a limited English vocabulary. According to the article "MedlinePlus and the Challenge of Low Health Literacy: Findings from the Colonias Project," researchers found participants more likely to seek treatment for sickness than without access to the information MedlinePlus provides. Knowing how patients can benefit from the information provided on the site, groups of promotoras, or "community social service assistants trained to help residents of medically underserved Hispanic neighborhoods," use MedlinePlus in Spanish.