So you have to go into hospital for a procedure? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to select the nearest hospital that is well rated for that procedure, or even highly rated? Go to The Joint Commission’s Find a Health Care Organization, where you can search by zip code and distance from zip code. It shows you hospitals on a map with basic information. Select a hospital and view a report that provides a Summary of Accreditation Quality Information, including a listing of procedures, and a rating compared with other hospitals. (David Henry)

I sure didn’t know that Hillsborough County has one of the two worst High Ozone Days records in Florida, and it’s also one of the worst for Particle Pollutants as well. This is according to the American Lung Association’s State Of The Air: 2008 website, which should be required reading for those with asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and similar problems. (Kim Komando)

What is that pill you just found in the bathroom cabinet? Or in a teenager’s bedroom? There’s a neat Pill Identifier that will help you find out, based on any letters imprinted on it, color, shape etc. It worked for me. There’s plenty of related information at the parent site, Drugs.com including a Drug Interactions Checker and Medical Encyclopedia. (Kim Komando)

I have recommended WebMD before, but now there is a formidable competitor in The Merck Manuals Online Medical Library. It’s very easy to navigate; the Sections tab leads to articles on various disorders, and there is a powerful Symptoms tool. Although aimed primarily at medical professionals, the introductory paragraphs in each area are quite accessible to the lay reader. Well worth consulting before visiting a doctor. (Kim Komando)

Does the drug you are taking do what it’s supposed to? What kind of side effects has it resulted in? To find out what others’ experience has been, visit Ask A Patient. I found many, many comments by patients who seem most willing to share their experience. Such a wide range of positive and negative comments supports my belief that what works for you may not work for me. I feel there is often no clear connection between cause and effect here. (Smart Computing)

We’ve been patiently awaiting the impact of technology on the costs of doctor visits, but savings seem elusive. For minor health maladies, you can log in to RelayHealth and answer a few questions based on your symptoms. Later your doctor views the information, asks more questions if necessary and then dispenses medical advice online. The consultation cost should be substantially less, right? Check if your doctor uses this service – mine doesn’t. (tbt*)

How are things arranged, exactly, inside your body? The brain, the skeleton, the heart and the digestive tract are laid out for you or your family to view at Virtual Body. This is a nice audio visual presentation that lets you interact with it; for example you can reassemble a skeleton from a pile of bones by click-and-drag. Or watch blood moving through the various parts of the heart while listening to a narrated tour. (Kim Komando)

“Once upon a time mainstream doctors looked askance at alternative treatments, especially when it came to chronic diseases. Now, the medical establishment is embracing a new way to heal.” AARP has a nice overview of alternative medicine, including integrated medicine that combines the best of conventional and alternative therapies. “Top medical institutions from the Cleveland Clinic to the Mayo Clinic have started or greatly expanded integrated-care programs.” (AARP The Magazine)

 How about your long term care? Do you feel comfortable about it? What is available, and what are the costs likely to be? A good place to start answering these questions is  What Does Long Term Care Cost?, AARP’s introductory article.  If you think you’ll need some form of non-family offered care, it’s a truism that the earlier you sign up, the more affordable the coverage will be, but you may still be shocked at the cost of such protection as well as its limitations. (AARP)

 What’s the “best” hospital for your proposed procedure? A local community hospital – conveniently located but maybe not especially well qualified to care for your condition – or a distant hospital that’s highly rated for it on a national list? If you have time to research this question, take a good look at the annual US News survey covering seventeen specialties— it might improve your prospects. Check the Methodology tab to help understand the rankings. (Kim Komando)

 “Do you know CPR? It’s a frightening fact: You never know when heart failure will strike. My brother recently suffered heart failure. Thankfully, a stranger performed CPR on him and saved his life. That person's knowledge of CPR was instrumental. So, I recently took a refresher class on CPR. You should, too. Of course, you’ll need to find a class near you. So visit the American Heart Association’s Web site to search for classes in your area. This is too important to put off!” (Kim Komando)

 As part of any program to reduce your weight, you have to manage your diet. You can start with a free online account to enter your daily foods and exercise. Fit Day analyzes all your information and shows you: Daily Calorie Counts; Carbs, Fat, and Protein; Weight Loss and Goals; Detailed Nutrition for 1,000's of foods; Long Term Diet Analysis; and much more... (Kim Komando)

There are over 100,000 pharmaceutical company reps visiting doctors every day in this country. Their job is to get the doctors to prescribe their company’s drugs, especially the latest, most-expensive ones. In a national survey “in which 94 percent of the doctors polled said they had ’direct ties’ to the drug industry,” we should be aware of what’s going on. Read an AARP Bulletin article for more information, plus an engaging video on what is being done about it. (AARP)

Since the worldwide banning of DDT it’s become known that the scourge of malaria can be effectively fought by distributing free insecticide-treated bed nets in affected areas. One agency dedicated to malaria prevention among its other services is Population Services International. It distributes them in thirty countries with education and follows up with insecticide reapplication kits after six to twelve months. (National Geographic)

“Taking three or more drugs adds to risk; do you need them all?” That’s just one of the items at Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs that made me sit up and take notice. Read the Drug Report on your condition for unbiased background. Or look up a brand name or generic drug for useful information on it. Don’t miss the Medicare article for a plain English explanation of the Part D prescription drug coverage. (Kim Komando)    

“Lose your belly-bulge,” says AARP, “that jiggle in your middle could put you at risk for diabetes—or worse.” Read all about it at How To Lose Your Spare Tire – and what you can do about it. After absorbing the rather strenuous regimen they advise, and reviewing the somewhat meager results, I think you are better off by avoiding having one in the first place. (AARP)

What’s wrong with you? If it’s something new, you might want to learn about your symptoms before you go to the doctor. Well-informed patients may decide they don’t need to see a doctor; if they do go, they’ll probably have a more successful visit. Try the Symptom Checkers at Healthline and WebMD to help you decide. I found them less useful than I hoped, perhaps because I was expecting too much. Both sites are also loaded with helpful medical information. (David Henry)

There’s room for a search engine specializing in health according to Medstory. With up-to-date information from mainly .orgs like Breastcancer, medhelp, emedicine, medscape and many other mostly non-commercial and academic sites, Medstory works like Google.  With the added benefit of sub-searches that help you to zero in more quickly, it appears to offer a very focused response to your queries.   (Kim Komando)

It’s often pretty expensive to visit a regular doctor these days, even if it’s just for a cold or sore throat. Help is on the way, however, with walk-in in-store clinics that are being opened across the country in Wal-Mart, Walgreens, etc. Staffed by licensed nurses, their practice is limited to routine tests, shots and treating common ailments. Fees are perhaps half what you would pay a doctor and are normally covered by Medicare and other insurance. Check if one is available near you at the Convenient Care Association. (AARP)

Is coffee good for you after all? There is much new health research reported on the Internet, but how much of that information can you trust? To give yourself a better chance, visit Health News Review where they grade health news stories on their ABCs--Accuracy, Balance, Completeness--using a five-star rating system. Click the View 5 Star Stories button for the best quality stories or use the keyword search feature. (Kim Komando)

  The cost of prescription medicine can be astronomical. But there are ways to lower your costs. For instance, you can substitute generics for name brands. Not sure if there are generic equivalents for your medications? Visit Drug Digest which will help you find generic alternatives (click on “for Savings”). Then you can speak with your doctor about switching. Also, check the drug interactions page. This will tell you if your medications will react badly with one another. Plus, it will tell you whether to avoid certain foods with the medications you list. (Roger Preslar)

There’s another good opportunity to assess your risk related to five major diseases at Harvard’s Your Disease Risk site. Choose Cancer, Heart disease, Diabetes, Stroke or Osteoporosis and answer the simple questions that follow. Your results are displayed graphically, along with tips specific to your situation that can help you to lower your risk. Anyone can benefit from this site. (Kim Komando)

Cheer yourself up—or not—by taking Northwestern Mutual’s Longevity Predictor. Answer these twelve questions about your lifestyle, exercise, diet and the like, and watch your predicted lifespan advance—or retard--with each response. It can be very sobering to observe the effects of your behaviors on your longevity. (Netsurfer Digest)

Are you taking a handful of pills for this and that? If so, you might want to check the probable interactions between them at Drug Digest. Select your drug names from a list–it even includes non-prescription drugs and herbal remedies–and you’ll get a detailed report on any problems. Keep your doctor on his toes! (David Henry)

Retired military personnel, especially those with an interest in provisions for their healthcare, may want to check out Pentagon Maverick. The author is an activist in this area and reproduces letters to legislators deploring various unattractive policies and actions affecting military retirees, especially those involved with Tampa’s MacDill AFB. He also makes his points with cartoons that are reproduced here. (Bob Sawallesh)

The Mayo Clinic has a nice health self-assessment test you can take at Personal Health Scorecard. You answer a dozen simple yes/no or multiple-choice questions and it will give you your result as a percentage of a perfect health score. More to the point, it picks out your weak areas and recommends specific actions to improve things. It takes just five minutes. (David Henry)

Steve is a 40-year-old ex-Marine with a wife and two kids. When his weight crept up to 375 pounds, he said, “Enough!” With preparation by a trainer and the support of his family he planned a six-month, 2800-plus-mile walk from Oceanside, CA, to New York City. The journal of the walk, now completed over a year later, is at TheFatManWalking.com. This man has grit, courage and buckets of determination. (Kim Komando)

The InVision Guide to a Healthy Heart is a most deserving Webby Award winner, not only for elucidating the complexities of the human cardiovascular system, but also for using powerful graphical, 3-D, interactive and video techniques to bring the topic to life. Be prepared for surprises as you click your way through this amazing website. (Webby 2005)

Yet another acronym to learn is COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, but not asthma, according to the American Lung Association. The site is a primary resource for those afflicted with or caring for someone with any obstruction to airflow that interferes with normal breathing. The ALA has now developed the COPD Lung Profiler, which is a user-friendly interactive Web-based tool that creates a personalized and confidential review to help each patient manage his or her lung health. (In the box headed “Patient Tools:” click on COPD.) The site offers similar tools for those suffering from Hay Fever, Asthma or Lung Cancer. (Parade)

The Mayo Clinic has always been respected as a fine health organization, and it's good exercise whenever I lift their six-pound Family Health Handbook off the bookshelf. They also put out Housecall, a free weekly newsletter you can sign up for at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/housecall/HouseCall  It's helpful and easy reading, and contains the occasional illustrative video or slide show. (Jason Williams)

If you are directly or indirectly involved with a suspected or actual case of cancer, you would be well-advised to visit Cancer Monthly. This independent site goes through all the treatment options for different cancer types in language that is easy to understand. More importantly, while there are many sites that describe treatment options, this is the only resource that reports the actual results of these therapies, in trials and studies, with both successes and failures. As new trials are completed the results are added to this site every month. You can search results by cancer type, type of treatment, and where available. (Smart Computing)

Remember the old government dietary recommendations that were presented in the form of a pyramid? After many years the USDA concluded it was oversimplified, so it has been redesigned to recognize our individual differences (age, sex, physical activity).  It is accompanied by a pretty good interactive website called My Pyramid where you can enter these factors and come up with your own personalized pyramid and associated dietary recommendations. Many helpful tips are offered, plus a link to the government's full-blown Dietary Guidelines for Americans and--for the less energetic among us--Executive Summary of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. (Publix)

Are you really still smoking at this time of life? Perhaps you have already tried to kick the habit, and failed? Well, you may find it worthwhile following the story at Bob Quits, where we see a series of video clips of Bob's personal crusade on the road to a tobacco-free existence, helped by the American Legacy Foundation ("We can help you quit.") He tells his story in this day-by-day video journal that can be quite compelling at times; see how his friends react, how he wrestles with his eighteen-year addiction and how he emerges from it after a month of difficult withdrawal.  (Netsurfer Digest)

Most of us are more or less aware of the organic food movement but are put off by the prices as seen in the organic section of supermarkets. There is an offshoot called Local Harvest that encourages us to buy food direct from local producers, whether organic or not; and while there may still be a premium, it should be more reasonable. The website shows you just what products are available in your area, when, and where. Plus there is an extensive catalog describing most foods, in categories from dairy through meats and vegetables, and emphasizing the benefits of using them fresh. (Sierra)

Your federal government has created a useful series of interactive health tutorials at its Medline Plus site. These are audio-visual presentations on some fifty Diseases and Conditions from, say AIDS to Warts that walk you through everything you need to know about them. Other tutorials cover Tests and Diagnostic Procedures, Surgery and Treatment Procedures, and a rather limited series (so far) on Prevention and Wellness. It is somehow more reassuring to hear a human voice discussing, say, Arthritis, accompanied by animated graphics, than merely reading about it. (David Henry)

You may know what ague, apoplexy, and atrophy are, but what about ablepsy (blindness), aphonia (laryngitis), and aphtha (thrush)? These old medical terms, which may also be useful to genealogists, are defined and sometimes discussed at length at the old disease names page of GAPS Index. The parent page is concerned with assisting those involved in Genetic Disorders and Birth Defects and provides a concise definition of modern medical terms on its Definitions of Genetic Disorders and Birth Defects page. If you have come across a complicated medical diagnostic term and are not sure what it means, look it up in this vast alphabetical index, each entry of which has a link to an authoritative Internet website. (Netsurfer Digest)

Who is not pretty confused by the latest government health care initiatives, especially those connected with Medicare? To add to the complexity, there is now the Prescription Drug Discount Card program. Question: Is it worth it, and, if so what can you do about it? Answer: Hurry on over to Medicare's Discount Card pages, where you can get help regarding eligibility, benefits, choosing, and enrolling. After answering a few questions, including some about your income and assets, you can see what your costs would be for your prescription drugs using discount cards offered by various pharmacies in your area. This appears to simplify a pretty complex process. On one test case, I saw a big reduction in what my share would be; maybe I'll try it after all. (Netsurfer Digest)

The National Institute of Health has reworked its website into a much more user-friendly format entitled MedlinePlus, with major sections written strictly for patients. At the same time, if you are looking up, say, Hepatitis B, you can follow up basic facts with almost any degree of in depth information. Try the interactive slide shows (165 of them), the Senior Health section, a comprehensive Drug Information section, and for the very latest up to date breakthroughs, the section on Clinical Trials. (David Henry)