- Caremark

www.caremark.com

This streamlined but wide-ranging website is primarily intended for members of participating Caremark-run prescription plans, and a member number is necessary to access some of its features. But the news and general articles, extensive drug information, tools and references are all available without registration.

The navigation bar on the side of the home page provides a long list of links available to non-registered users. One link, Medical Library, is full of information: an encyclopedia (Health Topics A to Z) Ask the Experts (for browsing only, you can’t actually ask a question); and a searchable encyclopedia describing hundreds of medical tests and procedures.

The Medical Library also contains a Drug Information Center with news, features, product recall alerts, drug safety and generic drug information, and a database of more than 60,000 prescription and over-the-counter medications. There’s also information about how to store medications, how to determine if your medicine is working, and how to save money with generic drugs. Back on the home page, a large link enables you to sign up to buy medications online.

The home page’s Highlights section features magazine-style articles from Consumer Health Interactive, such as news bulletins, “Can Men Get Breast Cancer?” (yes, rarely) and “Chefs: Staying Safe in a Pressure-Cooker Workplace.” Physicians and researchers, mostly from major medical schools, review all these original articles.

A separate box, In the News, provides daily coverage of health and medicine developments published in medical journals. What’s New includes book reviews with related articles, “Hot Topics,” which are seasonal articles, and “Updated,” which seem to be mostly articles overturning generally accepted ideas. You can also participate in a poll.

The site is provided by Caremark Rx, Inc., a pharmaceutical services company that provides drug benefit services to various health plans and operates retain and mail/Internet pharmacies, among other drug-related businesses.

Last modified: 20 Sep 2006.

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