Brian Marriott MD's Guide - A free, comprehensive guide to medical information available on the internet.

Medical Information Dictionary - Dictionary with extensive listings on treatments. Current information on new medical procedures and definitions.

A Guide to Medical Information and Support on the Internet - Covers medical chats, newsgroups, listservs, doctors online, Medline access, research tips, and comprehensive medical and health sites.

RxRelay.com - Provides medical information delivery services for doctors, pharmacies, patients, and healthcare organizations free of charge.

World Medical Center - Medical information and links to hospitals, education, Humanitarian Aid and Philanthropy.

Health Directory Worldwide - A comprehensive professional health directory with credible medical information content specializing in on-line physician directories for medical societies and medical market industry.

The Medical Information Warehouse - Offers medical and disease information including poison control and child abuse areas.

A Patient's Guide to the Internet - A step-by-step guide for patients seeking medical information on the Internet : Covers References, Resources, Support Groups, Mailing Lists, Medical Terminology, and a Glossary.

No Prescription Needed - the best links to online overseas pharmacies that deliver with no prescription, mail order discount drugstores, mexican pharmacy links, and links to pain doctors, and medical information.

Body1.com - Health news and medical information community for consumers.

Colorado HealthNet: Chronic Illnesses - Provides free access to support services, resources, holistic health and other medical information for persons with chronic medical conditions.

Spears & MacLeod Pharmasave Medical Links - Providing an easy to search medical information index.

Medical I. D Card - A wallet size card with your medical information that can mean the difference between life and death during an emergency situation.

AskDrWalker - Resources and links to medical information. Includes medical databases, medical search engines, diseases and conditions and useful links for health professionals and patients.

Med Help International - The Virtual Medical Center for Patients - Med Help provides patient medical information via our virtual medical center. Site includes: the largest patient medical library on the Net, Ask-The-Doctor Forums, medical news, and patient networking.

Meditune - Links and resources for doctors. Contains medical information and articles, news and virtual case sheets.

MED-HELP.COM's Ask The Nurse - Medical Information, Ask the Nurses, Medical Library, Medical Links, Medical News, Medication Information, Fibromyalgia, CFIDS, Non Profit Medical Ministry.

HealthGate - Health, food, drug, medicine and disease information plus kid, teen, men and womens health news, along with health and medical information for travel sport/fitness, nutrition, sexuality, parenting and mental health.

Best Health Guide - Praxis MD. Provides patients with customized, practical medical information, and offers a 'doctor visit checklist' and recommended readings.

WebMedline - The first Medline on the Web. Developed in 1994 by Stanford University School of Medicine, Medical Information Sciences.

Health In Focus - Independent UK health information and medical information resource.

HealthySelf: Health and Medical Information Research Service - HealthySelf provides fee-based health and medical information on diseases, procedures, treatments (conventional and alternative) and resources.

Diseases, Disorders and Related Topics - Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Comprehensive listings of links to medical information, most reliable, some not.

Pharmacia Oncology - Medical information resource for cancer patients and oncology health care professionals about cancer therapies, innovative research and partnerships throughout the oncology community.

Depression - For Teens By Teens - Signs and symptoms, real life stories,statistics and facts, causes and medical information.

Ask The Internet Therapist - This group of professionals provides online counseling and medical information by telephone, chat, and email and offers educational mental health audio tapes and videotapes.

Healthology.com - Provides health and medical information, created by healthcare professionals for consumers along with a medical and health bookstore.

W3 Health and Wellness - News magazine about health and welfare, including medical information, diet and exercise, and mental and physical well-being.

womansmed.com - This site provides general medical information on women's health topics from the point of view of a woman physician. Articles peer reviewed by a panel of healthcare professionals.

MedecineNet - Medical information about Menopause therapies and treatment. Includes hormone replacement therapy, bone loss, and mammograms.

Dr. Ann Steiner's Medical Information Sheet - Medical information form for convenient medication tracking. Medicine list easily folded into pocket-sized reference.

Young People with Cancer: A Handbook for Parents - This guide addresses some of the most common questions about cancer in the young, combining medical information with practical suggestions.

HealthGate STD Center - Comprehensive resource for health and medical information on sexually transmitted diseases.

Mom-e - Pregnancy and labour, pre-pregnancy care and preparation for pregnancy and mother and baby. A wide range of medical information written by a leading UK obstetrician and your questions answered.

EuMom.com - Offering medical information on the signs, symptoms and stages of pregnancy. Services include a pregnancy due date calendar and a personal support forum.

Bedrest Support During Pregnancy - Resources, medical information, limiations list, online chat and message board.

Allhealthnet.com - Global medical search engine. Comprehensive source of medical information available on the web.

High-Altitude Medical Guide - Provides current medical information on the prevention, recognition, and treatment of altitude illness, as well as other health issues affecting travelers to high mountainous regions of the world.

Nutrition-Consult.com - Medical information related to functional nutrition and consultations. Reference articles on various health conditions related to food and nutrition provided.

About Pediatrics - Parenting and Health Information - A wealth of resources and references about common childrens health issues, with parenting and medical information so you can keep your kids safe and healthy.

MediMall - Free medical information portal with e-commerce business affiliations offering medical books and a medical PDA resource centre.

InteliHealth: Cancer - Medical information, articles and news covering a variety of tumors and related issues.

Medicine.Net - Medical information about Asthma therapies, Asthma symptoms and Asthma medications

4Asthma - Comprehensive listing of news and medical information from 4anything.com.

MDAdvice.com - Provides health and medical information, health tips, resources, experts, news, chats, and community support.

Pocket Doctor - Web and WAP (wireless access phone) access to comprehensive health and medical information including a health encyclopaedia and medical symptoms analyser. (UK based)

Medinex - Provides a safe health search for medical information available on the internet.

Hellas Medical - A directory of medical information, news, and resources.

Timely Topics in Medicine - Interactive medical information in a multicultural, multilanguage setting. Features include access to original articles and case reports, news and multimedia webcasts from major conferences, telesymposia and Medline.

Full Circle Registry - Provides living wills at no cost to all who request them; stores your medical records and emergency medical information for immediate download by health care professionals worldwide.

Predictonline - A testing and awareness site to provide the public and healthcare provider with medical information on various medical conditions.

Healthcare Advocates - Helping people with insurance problems, finding doctors, nursing homes, medical information and more.

MedServ Medical News - Provides medical information and news to medical professionals worldwide.

A Second Opinion Medical Information Services - Medical treatment options, physician background check service, best hospitals and doctors. (Ft. Walton Beach, FL)[Fee based service - ed]

Health and Medical Information - Medical and health information for health professionals, patients and families. Information about hospitals, diseases, injuries, health care, surgery and infections.

Pharmacist's Guide to Drug and Medical Information on the Internet - Clinical Pharmacist's web page containing links to helpful and informative drug and medical information sites. Drug databases are available.

Mioti: Medical Information on the Internet - Directory of medical websites.

Doctor's Guide to the Internet - Has professional and patient editions containing news, medical information and resources.

Healthy Intentions - Medical information service on any topic requested. An individualized report is prepared containing information from a wide variety of previously published material from both the conventional and alternative medicine fields.

PolyMedicine.com - Clinicians review electronic medical information resources available in any of the following media: browsable WWW sites, downloadable datasets and software or CD-ROMS.

The Herbal Nexus - Herbs, their uses, folklore, medical information, photos, and a bookstore.

Author: Richard Lowe, Jr.

During the past couple of years, my wife's physical condition has forced me to become very educated about medical science. Before this time, I knew enough to get by, just a few things that I picked up here and there. Afterwards, I researched several specific conditions (especially asthma and Fibromyalgia) so heavily that I was able to not only understand what my doctor was saying, but I could help him create a better program for resolving my wife's condition. Due to this research, the doctor/patient relationship has changed to a partnership where we are searching for answers together.

My wife has had asthma for quite some time, and it occasionally flares up into life-threatening strength. There were times, several years ago, when I came home from work and found my wife laying in bed, gasping for breath, her fingers and skin a beautiful shade of purple. It got so bad sometimes that I was afraid to go to work for fear that Claudia would suffocate before I could get home.

I started my research by reading as much material as I could. One thing I discovered right away is medical books in general tend to assume (a) the doctor is god and the patient is stupid, or (b) the reader is a doctor.

This was very frustrating, and asking doctors and other medical professionals was no help at all - they didn't seem to want educated patients.

A single event changed my life forever and directly caused be to begin using the internet for my medical researches. This occurred in the middle of 1999 - my wife went into a coma for five days due to a kidney failure.

During this time, I discovered the truth: most medical professionals are arrogant and hide behind strange words for a reason ... they do not have a clue as to what they are doing.

After Claudia returned from the hospital, I spent many long hours at home watching over her. It took her months to recover ... and the doctors could not figure out what to do about it. Thus, I turned to the internet for

help, and quickly discovered the resources that I needed to help my wife return to health.

One of the first and best sites that I discovered was drkoop.com
(http://www.drkoop.com). This wonderful reference contains articles on just about everything that I needed to know. The most important feature was a drug interaction tool. You enter the names of all of the prescriptions that a person is taking and the tool tells you about possible interactions.

Another excellent resource is WebMd.Com (http://webmd.com/). This wonderful medical resource has a doctor's only section and a patients section. The articles for patients are very well written and understandable - their target audience is people like me. People who have medical concerns but are not doctors or nurses. I found this site an excellent place to read about diseases and treatments.

The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Medical Guide (http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/texts/guide/) is one of the very best resources that I have found in a long time. This is more or less an interactive book containing much that you can use to increase your knowledge before you visit the doctor.

Of course, the American Medical Association

(http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/3457.html) has it's own web site.This is another good source of information, although it's not as easy to understand as Drkoop or Webmd.

There are many, many other medical resources available. In fact, the problem that I found was that there were so many sites available that it was difficult to narrow down my selections to something reasonable.

However, after a few months I found myself using the four sites mentioned above almost exclusively.

Other good resources include:

- Center For Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/), the government web site on this topic. Excellent resource although a bit technical at times.

- Healthfinder (http://www.healthfinder.gov/), a selection of good health related resources.

- Healthweb (http://healthweb.org/index.cfm), a directory of health related sites

- National Women's Health Information Center (http://www.4women.gov/), a great source of medical information about women.

Using the information gathered from these sites as well as a few good books, my doctor and I were able to put together a program of prescription drugs, herbs and vitamins which helped my wife get her asthma under control. Perhaps the most useful resource was Drkoop's drug interaction tool, which helped prevent some very serious side effects from damaging my wife's health.

An important point about all of this is to use caution. In addition to some excellent resources, there are plenty of quacks and fakes on the internet, just as there are in real life. Be sure and discuss everything with medical professionals before taking any course of action.

The goal here is to become better educated, so you and your doctor can work together as necessary to come up with a solution to what ails you. The resources on the internet should never be used to replace your doctor or other professionals.

Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at

http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit the website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.