MedlinePlus Adds Interactive Health Tutorials

MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's web site for consumer health information, has added a series of interactive modules for patient education.

There are 30 topics in the series, including

• diseases and conditions, such as diabetes and back pain
• tests and procedures, such as colonoscopy and CT scan
• treatment procedures, such as breast cancer surgery, coronary artery bypass, and prostate surgery, and
• modules in Spanish on diabetes and hypertension.

Each module, which takes about 10 minutes to review, uses animated graphics and explains a condition or procedure in easy-to read language. The user can also listen to the tutorial or print the text of each from a PDF file. The modules require a Flash plug-in, version 4 or above, which may be downloaded free of charge.

The tutorials were prepared by the Patient Education Institute (PEI) and modified to NLM's specifications. PEI is a private company located on the Technology Innovation Campus of the University of Iowa. More topics are in preparation and will be added to MedlinePlus in the coming months.

The tutorials may be accessed directly at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials.html

Last updated: 19 March 2001
First published: 19 March 2001
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanence Not Guaranteed