Patient Information — Best of the Web: Nonprofit Resources

The American Cancer Society site offers activities, news, or resources on a national, state and local basis.

The American Heart Association site provides information about cardiovascular disease and stroke as well as information about the local chapter, the Miami Valley American Heart Association. Check out Delicious Decisions, an online "cookbook" and guide to healthy eating.

Breastcancer.org is published by a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing the most reliable, complete, and up-to-date information about breast cancer. The highly rated site seeks help women and their loved ones make sense of the complex medical and personal information about breast cancer, so they can make the best decisions for their lives.

FamilyDoctor.org provides patient information written and reviewed by physicians and patient education professionals at the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Health On the Net (HON) is one of most widely respected not-for-profit portals to authoritative, trustworthy Web-based medical information. Among HON's distinguishing features are the HON Code of Conduct for medical and health Web sites and MedHunt©, a tool for simultaneously searching all the sites that adhere to the code of conduct.

HealthWorld Online provides information about healthy living, alternative therapies and body-mind-spirit health. The site strives to integrate both alternative and conventional health information.

The HIV InSite Gateway to HIV and AIDS Knowledge offers a broad collection of original material, a complete textbook with extensive references and related links organized by topic, and thousands of links to external Web sites. Developed by the Center for HIV Information at the University of California San Francisco, the site allows free, anonymous access to all content.

KidsHealth is the largest and most visited site on the Web providing doctor-approved health information about children from before birth through adolescence. Created by The Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media, the award-winning site has separate areas for kids, teens and parents -- each with its own design, age-appropriate content, and tone.

MedHelp.org provides medical information in non-technical language to assist patients in understanding their diseases and/or conditions. The site offers a comprehensive, searchable Consumer Health Information Library; medical specialty forums, in which patients can ask questions of leading physicians and healthcare professionals; and a patient-to-patient network.

National Health Council is a private, nonprofit umbrella organization comprised of more than 115 national health-related organizations, including more than 40 of the nation's leading patient-based groups, also known as voluntary health agencies. The group primarily advocates on behalf of the voluntary health movement.

NetWellness is a consumer health information service developed by the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with Case Western Reserve University and The Ohio State University. It includes general information on a number of topics as well as an "Ask and Expert" section.

New York Online Access to Health (NOAH) was the first bilingual (Spanish and English) consumer health site. It offers a vast amount of information on health conditions plus links to external resources.