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 | Healthsite Overview: MediLexicon |  |
A sister site to Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com), MediLexicon offers visitors a free database of more than 20,000 medical and pharmaceutical abbreviations – the largest such collection in the world, according to the company.
While MediLexicon does offer a dozen or so links to the day’s top healthcare stories, its greatest value is as a reference tool. (The medical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemical and healthcare industries are densely packed with acronyms, often leading to confusion for newcomers to online health searches.) One of its most useful features is the ability to compile all known definitions across all of those industries on a single page. That “one-stop shop” of all meanings enables users to see every explanation for an abbreviation or acronym, reducing the likelihood of mismatching an acronym or abbreviation to the wrong definition.
MediLexicon offers a number of medical and search tools that users can download. In addition to the free tools offered on Medical News Today (a medical toolbar for Internet Explorer, a search box for PC desktops, and a search box users can put on their own Web sites), MediLexicon also offers a database containing more than 46,000 entries that visitors can purchase and upload into a Palm Pilot or Pocket PC. Pocket PC users can purchase the Medical Abbreviation Dictionary for $25; Palm Pilot users can purchase the dictionary for $15. A commercial version, available for Palm Pilots only, contains the dictionary and also gives users the ability to add their own entries to create a personalized database.
Another noteworthy aspect of www.medilexicon.com is the thoroughness of its content; the site includes a searchable database of pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical associations and hospitals. That’s a major advantage, as the site not only provides information on a drug or condition, but also helps visitors identify a product’s manufacturer and gives them a comprehensive list of organizations and healthcare facilities related to specific conditions. Further, users can even do a “reverse search” to find medical conditions and treatments by ICD-9 codes—an especially valuable feature for healthcare professionals and those familiar with medical reimbursement processes and procedures.
The site is thoughtfully designed and easy to navigate. There are boxes containing links geared to both patients (Asthma, Breast Cancer, Blood Pressure, Heartburn and Migraine) and healthcare professionals (Breast Cancer, Cardiovascular, GI, Migraine, Prostate Cancer, Psychiatry, Respiratory, and Learning Resources), and a third box with links to specific types of searches (Medical Abbreviations, Medical Dictionary, ICD-9 Codes, Pharma Companies, Hospitals Worldwide, Medical Associations, Skin Conditions, and Other).
Finally, a fourth box contains various other health-related links that users might find helpful (Free Tools and Content, Directories, Transcription, Product Delivery, and Membership). There’s even a link to “funny medical abbreviations” such as FDGB, which stands for Fall Down, Go Boom.
It is easy to envision healthcare Web surfers starting their sessions on Medical News Today to find current information on one of a 100+ medical conditions, and then switching to a second browser on the MediLexicon site. The combination of the two sites is a powerful tool that not only provides a wealth of information, but also the means to better understand and interpret that content.
Last modified: 20 Sep 2006.
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