Did the Doctor tell your patron he had a disease with a name a mile long, and now the patron is asking you to explain it in language he can understand? Do you have a self-employed patron who wants to explore his insurance options? How do you help the mother who wants to know if coughing and a low grade fever are serious enough to take her child to the doctor? Where do you find information for the nursing student (or grade school student) who has to do a report on the circulation system?
Have no fear! Help is here! Search http://kansashealthonline.org
Kansas Health Online is sponsored by the National Libraries of Medicine, The Kansas Health Policy Authority, the A. R. Dykes Medical Library at the University of Kansas Medical Center and the State Library of Kansas. I'm really excited about it because it gives librarians and consumers "one-stop-shopping" for a world of quality health information. You will no longer need to "Google" the topic and wade through all the folks wanting to sell you an herbal treatment or home remedy instead of finding the hard facts.
This website links you to handpicked websites that offer all sorts of information: Symptoms, How to find a doctor, Information about a disease, the latest healthy living information. Going in for surgery? You can watch videos of surgical procedures so you understand exactly what will happen. This is particularly comforting to some children who don't understand what will happen to them during a procedure such as a tonsillectomy.
Coming this fall, Kansas Health Online will join more than 20 other states giving Go Local information. This portion of the website will link searchers to hospitals and agencies offering services in your hometown, county and region. Right now Mary Lou Chard is entering the GoLocal information that SEKLS librarians have shared with her. Other parts of the state will be covered by other data entry people. We hope to see the service "live" before Christmas.
Check out the website! It's one you will wnat to bookmark on the reference computer. Your patrons will love this service.
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