Week 7 - Medical Databases

Health Source - Consumer Edition
     Looking through the journals that this database draws upon it's clear that it will provide answers from a broad variety of expert medical sources.  Once I moved forward into my search I found that results were clearly intended for a consumer level, with most of the article I read being written so that a layperson could understand it easily. At the very end it had a paragraph that quickly rose to dizzying levels of medical terms and jargon. I was glad to see them not holding back entirely on the terminology, as it might prove useful to a researcher looking find similar articles, or wishing to step up into the realm of other more technical information.
   

Medline Plus
    The articles on the right revolve around smoking, alcohol, and diabetes at the start of my investigations into Medline. On the left the Popular Searches tag cloud shows Autism, Diabetes, Hypertension and Vitamin D as the chief search terms of late.
     Entering the section on prescription drugs it's clearly a tool meant for consumer use, the drug information closely resembles the information and warnings that will accompany over-the-counter medications or the safety sheets that come with prescriptions.
    When entering into health concerns I find the overall amount of information quite similar to Health Source Consumer's search, but I find that the organization and presentation of the information here is far better. There are more links to continue or narrow the research in different directions, and overall I feel like the information here has a much easier 'flow' for the reader to absorb.
     For the Video and other 'Cool Tools' I chose an interactive test. The questions were simple and direct, the presentation was neat and professional, using graphical elements to draw the eye to the quiz, and the information supplied was succinct and gave a good amount of information at the end along with a one-click option to find out more information at the end. All in all, a well-made and simple self diagnostic tool for home users, and a good one to spread information.