According to the British Columbia Patient-Centred Care Framework, "patient-centred care puts patients at the forefront of their health and care, ensures they retain control over their own choices, helps them make informed decisions and supports a partnership between individuals, families, and health care services providers." Understanding and supporting patients in their online information-seeking is one way of practicing patient-centred care.
While the following resources are generally reliable, it is important to remember that patients come from different backgrounds and may be at different health literacy levels. As healthcare professionals, it can be helpful to have conversations with patients about the online resources they use, and offer guidance for them to navigate and interpret the information that they find. This not only empowers patients and protects them against misinformation, but strengthens the patient-practitioner relationship at the same time (Bylund et al., 2007; Southwell et al., 2020). Some studies have even found that bringing online resources into clinical settings can validate patients' information-seeking behaviour and model good information-seeking practices (Stevenson et al., 2019).
MedlinePlus: Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial
NIH: Finding and Evaluating Online Resources
Ask the 5 Ws: Who? What? When? Where? Why?
When a sponsor is mentioned, look up the sponsor’s website.
Check if a social media account has been verified (e.g. verified Twitter accounts have a checkmark beside them).
"Verified” means that an account is genuinely managed by the account-holder rather than an impersonation of an official source; it does not mean that all its claims are credible.
U.S. Food and Drug: How to Spot Health Fraud
Recognize red flags
One product claims to cure a wide spectrum of diseases
Personal testimonial as primary evidence
Advertising a quick solution
Excessive emphasis on how “natural” a product and linking this to greater reliability/effectiveness
Guaranteeing product/service satisfaction
Accusations against other companies/organizations
Use of unrecognized medical jargon or acronyms
Fact-check
Check with a health professional
Discuss information with others (family and friends)
Reach out to an appropriate health organization
Share information about health fraud and significant fraud investigations
ScienceUpFirst: Together Against Misinformation
UNICEF: COVID-19 Misinformation Toolkit for Kids (and Parents!) at Home
Health Information Resources
Offers a range of informational resources, including drug and treatment information, latest trends, medical encyclopedia, and even healthy recipes.
Information on diseases and conditions, prevention and wellness, and family health resources from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), with blog posts by family doctors.
Cleveland Clinic Health Library
Searchable database of FAQs on various medical topics, including the human body, diseases, treatments, drugs, diagnostics, and symptoms.
Health library that has a searchable database educating about diseases and conditions, symptoms, testing and procedures, drugs and supplements as well as lifestyle interventions for health living.
Academic database that has been modified for patient accessibility that serves to inform about health conditions and research findings in a more palatable format
Health Information Resources for Healthcare Professionals
Subscription-based database that provides comprehensive guidelines on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of health conditions or diseases.
Provides information on medical-related news, emerging research and continuing medical education programs as well as an interactive database on drugs, diseases and clinical guidelines.
An evidence-based, clinical decision making tool that provides healthcare professionals with reliable information regarding diagnosis and management strategies for diseases.
Clinical practice guidelines and protocols for healthcare practitioners in B.C. that contain up to 50+ guidelines on how to approach diseases including diagnosis and treatment
UBC-accessed database that can be used to search for healthcare-related research in journals and articles, clinical overviews and guidelines on diseases as well as information that can be used for patient education
UBC-accessed database that provides resources and guidelines on the pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of diseases but also study tools such as case studies, flashcards and review questions for medical students in clerkship
Government Resources for Canadians
Covers a wide range of health topics, including food and nutrition, vaccination, diseases and conditions, health products, indigenous health, health services, and recent research.
Public Health Agency of Canada
News and resources specific to preventing injuries and diseases, responding to public health threats, and promoting physical and mental health.
Provides province-based information on public health services, guides on diseases and conditions, and latest public health updates.
Canadian Health Information Podcast
In-depth conversations on health topics with policymakers, frontline workers, and health information specialists. Podcast also available in French.
CDC Podcast (US)
A podcast on a wide variety of current public health topics, with weekly news summary episodes.
Epidemiologist Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick addresses health questions and myths from the community using a storytelling approach.
Nutritionists and dieticians talk about the connection between food and wellbeing, with a new focus each week.
A resource for looking up drug information, drug interactions, and side effects.
Offers first aid and disaster response tips in text and video form, and has interactive quizzes to test user knowledge.
Approved by the American Academy of Pediatrics, this app is designed for parents to easily search up common symptoms and disease information for their children, and comes with images and illustrations.
An educational app designed for children aged 4+ to explore functions of the human body and learn how to keep it healthy, available in multiple languages.