NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., leads the nation's medical research agency and oversees the NIH's 27 Institutes and Centers and more than 17,000 employees.
It is a pleasure to support the National Library of Medicine and the Friends of the National Library of Medicine in launching the first issue of NIH MedlinePlus. This quarterly guide for patients and their families brings to you the latest and most authoritative medical and healthcare information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as featured online at the MedlinePlus Web site. Your physician has made this magazine available to you as a free health resource; please take a copy with you today.
The MedlinePlus Web site is a free and comprehensive public health information resource from the world's largest medical library, NIH's National Library of Medicine. MedlinePlus has extensive information from the NIH and other trusted sources on more than 700 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and a medical dictionary, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, health information from the media and links to thousands of medical clinical trials.
This magazine will provide you with a gold standard of reliable, up-to-date health information in a very user-friendly format that can act as a springboard to the Web site. Each issue will highlight four major health conditions, offering the latest advice on prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research findings. Regular features will include the latest information on how to stay healthy for a lifetime and will also profile some of the most fascinating people—from laboratory scientists and public figures to patients just like you—who are making a difference in the search for medical Advances.
The American people have made a long-term investment in the crucial medical research being carried on by the NIH. NIH MedlinePlus magazine is an important way to make this research and healthcare information even more accessible and useful to health professionals and patients alike.
The Nation's Medical Research Agency
With roots in the 19th century, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the world's leader in medical research. Comprised of 27 separate Institutes and Centers, NIH is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research, providing leadership and financial support to top scientists in every state in the nation and throughout the world.
Supported by the American taxpayer, NIH research has led to tremendous breakthroughs in what we know about diseases and how to prevent, detect, diagnose and treat them. More than 80 percent of NIH's funding is awarded through almost 50,000 competitive grants to more than 212,000 researchers at over 2,800 universities, medical schools and other research institutions in every state in the U.S. and around the world.
The National Institutes of Health is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Dr. Donald Lindberg
and grandson
explore
www.medlineplus.gov.
Dear Reader,
It is a pleasure to welcome you to NIH MedlinePlus magazine, your guide to the vast resources that you will find at MedlinePlus.gov, the free Web site of authoritative health information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other trusted sources.
MedlinePlus.gov was created by the National Library of Medicine, a part of the NIH and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Founded in 1836, primarily for doctors, the Library has expanded its mission and now serves the general public as well as health professionals.
Each month, the public, physicians and health professionals view some 75 million pages of timely health information on the MedlinePlus Web site. There is no advertising, no registration and the site is completely free. In addition to a remarkable array of consumer-friendly information, there are convenient links to the scientific medical literature (PubMed), a registry of 27,000 clinical trials, extensive information about genetic diseases and much more. The Web site is updated daily, so it always carries the latest information.
I hope that you, your family and friends will find this magazine useful. If you would like to receive NIH MedlinePlus regularly, please fill out the subscription envelope attached inside this issue. And take a look at the Web site. I think you will find a wealth of information that will help keep you and your loved ones healthy.
Sincerely,
Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.
Director, National Library of Medicine
A National Treasure House of Knowledge
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, is the world's largest medical library. The Library, which has long served health professionals, educators and scientists, now also provides free information for the general public at www.medlineplus.gov.
NLM collects materials in all areas of biomedicine and healthcare, as well as works on biomedical aspects of technology, the humanities and the physical, life and social sciences. The collections stand at more than 8 million items—books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, photographs and images. Housed within the Library is one of the world's finest medical history collections of old and rare medical works. NLM is a national resource for all U.S. health science libraries through the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.