The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is dedicated to promoting "health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability." Of special interest to the consumer are the resources about diseases, conditions and other special topics arranged under "Health Topics A-Z" and "Travelers' Health," with health immunizations and recommendations for travelers worldwide.

CINAHL covers nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines. Offers access to health care books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of practice, educational software, audiovisuals and book chapters. Indexing for 2,717 journals and full text for 320 journals, plus legal cases, clinical innovations, critical paths, drug records, research instruments, and clinical trials.

Health Source: Consumer Edition provides consumer oriented information on many health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine, and general health. Includes searchable full text for over 150 consumer health journals, abstracts and indexing for nearly 175 general health, nutrition and professional health care publications, and thousands of essays covering eight major health related subjects, including adult health, behavioral health, cardiology, drug and medication information, pediatric health, senior health, women's health and sports medicine. Includes results from Clinical Pharmacology, which replaces information previously obtained from USP DI: Volume II, Advice for the Patient.

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides more than 400 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines, and provides abstracts and indexing for over 500 journals. Also includes integrated results from Clinical Pharmacology (which replaces USP DI: Volume II, Advice for the Patient) and access to Stedman's Medical Dictionary.

Healthfinder is a gateway consumer health information web site whose goal is "to improve consumer access to selected health information from government agencies, their many partner organizations, and other reliable sources that serve the public interest." A variety of menu lists on its home page link to online journals, medical dictionaries, minority health, as well as prevention and self-care. The developer/sponsor of this site is the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Department of Health and Human Services with other listed agencies.

HealthLink Plus facilitates access to selected consumer health information in an effort to develop and enhance public knowledge. Instead of wading through thousands of health related Internet web sites, HealthLink Plus users will find a few reliable, recent, and authoritative sites selected by PLCMC's professional staff to meet the needs of their patrons. Topics such as health insurance and Medicare as well as Complementary & Alternative Medicine are covered.

HIV InSite is a project of the University of California, San Francisco AIDS Research Institute. Designed as a gateway to in-depth information about particular aspects of HIV/AIDS, it provides numerous links to many authoritative sites.

Mayo Clinic Health Oasis is an excellent consumer source of information. Editors of the site include over 1,200 physicians, scientists, writers and educators at the Mayo Clinic, a non-profit institution with more than 100 years of history in patient care, medical research and education. The site is an extension of the Mayo Clinic commitment to provide health education to patients and the general public.

Medem is a project of the leading medical societies in the United States. Some of the founding societies include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The site was developed to provide "a trusted online source for credible, comprehensive, and clinical healthcare information, and secure, confidential communications." The "Medical Library" is divided into four major categories: Life Stages, Diseases and Conditions, Therapies and Health Strategies, and Health and Society.

MEDLINEplus is one of the most comprehensive web resources for quality consumer health information. Developed by the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, the site contains extensive, high quality information on common diseases and conditions, health promotion and wellness, prescription and non-prescription drugs, medical dictionaries and more. There are also interactive health tutorials and information on clinical trials. A Spanish version is also available.

National Women's Health Information Center (NWHIC) is a relatively new gateway site of health information for consumers, health care professionals, researchers, and educators and is sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service's Office on Women's Health. It provides access to a variety of women's federal resources in addition to those in the private sector. The stated goal of the site is "to help ensure a healthier future for all American women."