Mayo Clinic - Health Site Guide

www.mayoclinic.com

MayoClinic.com is a site where you can ask a question of a specialist physician. No individual answers are given by email, but you might receive a public response on the website. More than two dozen medical specialists participate, including a neurologist, psychiatrist, cardiologist, obstetrician-gynecologist and dermatologist. All are affiliated with the prestigious Mayo Clinics in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

Another key feature of this site is its “Treatment Decisions” link, which provides specific guidance for selecting among all the major treatments for a short list of medical conditions. These include the “Enlarged prostrate guide” and the “Herniated disk guide.”

Otherwise the site is an easy-to-digest, comprehensive source of information about diseases, conditions, drugs and supplements. In the “Health Tools” section, you can calculate your or your child’s body mass index (BMI), your risk for heart disease, your pregnancy due date, or consult a daily calorie calculator.

You can take a depression or prostate symptoms self-assessment, among several other assessments, or test your knowledge with a quiz.

Also in this section, you can choose among a short selection of videos. The topics include several common strength training exercises (“Bicep curl”), some how-tos (“How to use a dry powder tube inhaler”), descriptions of medical conditions (“An asthma attack”), what happens during certain medical procedures (“Barium X-ray or contrast study,” “Arthroscopic knee surgery”) and a few videos on how the body works (“Ovulation”).

In the “Healthy Living” section you can find hundreds of healthy recipes as well as information about stress, your working life (stress and occupational safety), sleep and a few other topics. The home page provides a news article, a rotating set of links to content on the site, and a “Find It <
If you participate in the site’s free registration, you can create your own health page tailored to your specific health concerns.
The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Rochester, Minnesota, owns this website. It’s edited by Mayo physicians and accepts limited outside advertising. The sister link to MayoClinic.org describes Mayo’s hospitals, clinics and medical school.

Last modified: 20 Sep 2006.