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Using iCONN to Find Quality
Health and Medical Information
What is iCONN?
iCONN is a program run by the Connecticut State Library and the Department of Higher Education which provides Connecticut residents with free access to various licensed information databases. This is a great source for free, quality health and medical information that is often overlooked by the public. In fact, iCONN offers six databases of health and medical information, which contain a variety of useful features and information. Here, we will focus on one of these resources in depth, the Health & Wellness Resource Center (HWRC), to provide an example of the kind of information that is available through iCONN, and how these resources can be used to obtain quality health information.
Who can use iCONN?
All Connecticut residents, students and faculty in Connecticut schools (including distance learners), and those who visit any Connecticut library or use a computer in the state of Connecticut can access the Health & Wellness Resource Center through iCONN. The information provided in HWRC is suitable for adults and children of middle school-age and older.
What kind of information can I find in the
Health & Wellness Resource Center?
· general information about medical conditions
· information about specific drugs and herbs
· the latest health news from around the world
· information about alternative health topics
· videos on various health topics
· a directory of health organizations
· interactive health assessment tools
Why can’t I just look up this information on the web?
Information found on the web is often unreliable. Anyone can create and post a website, but that does not mean that the information they provide is accurate. Therefore, it is often better to use a trusted resource such as those offered on iCONN to ensure that you are receiving accurate information. The information resources provided through iCONN have been evaluated by librarians and other information specialists and found to be good sources of reliable, quality information. The Health & Wellness Resource Center gets its information from well-known and respected sources, which you can see by clicking on the “List of Sources”, accessible through the Home page.
If you would like more information on how to evaluate health and medical websites, HWRC provides access to a tutorial on “Evaluating Internet Health Information”, which you can access by choosing “Links to Other Sites” from the home page. A link to the tutorial is available under the topic of “Health Literacy”. They also recommend the following web page, which provides numerous resources to help you evaluate online health information:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghealthinformation.html
How do I get to the Health & Wellness Resource Center?
1) The Health & Wellness Resource Center can be accessed through www.iconn.org. Just enter your Connecticut Library Card Number to log in. This is the 14-digit number found beneath the bar code on the back of your library card. It should be entered without spaces.
2) If you do not have a library card, click on “CT Residents: Don't have a library card?TRY THIS!”. If you are using a computer in the state of Connecticut, this should log you in even without a library card.
3) Next, go to “Link to Individual Resources”. This will bring up a list of the resources available through iCONN.
4) Under “Health & Science”, select “Health & Wellness Resource Center”. This will bring up the home page, and you will be ready to get started.
Using HWRC
Here is an example of the HWRC home page:
From here, you can see some of the features included in the database.
Here is an overview of what each section contains and when to use the different features:
· Medical Encyclopedia: Use this resource to get a general overview of a topic or concept, including basic information on health conditions such as symptoms, causes, and methods of diagnosis and treatment.
· Drug and Herb Finder: This tool can be used to look up a particular drug or herb to gain information about its uses, correct dosage, side effects and other information.
· Health Assessment Tools: This page lists several interactive tools you can use to assess your general health and risk of certain diseases.
· Health Organization Directory: Use this resource to find contact information and general information about health organizations like The American Cancer Society. It includes agencies, organizations, schools of medicine, websites, journals, newsletters and other publications, hospitals, health care facilities, programs and special care agencies. However, it is not a directory of health care practitioners.
· Medical Dictionary: Use this resource when you need a brief definition of a specific term.
· Links to Other Sites: Look here for links to reputable websites on various health topics, with a brief description of what each site contains.
· Health News: This feature provides a searchable database of newspaper articles on health issues from around the world. Use this feature when you want the latest information about a health topic.
· Alternative Health Encyclopedia: This resource provides general information about health topics, but also includes alternative health information such as alternative methods of treatment.
· Multimedia Library: This resource provides access to videos and other multimedia resources on various health topics.
You can select one of these tools to explore further and help focus your search, or you can begin your search in the general “Search for:” box at the top of the page. If you choose this approach, your hit list will be returned in the following format, which shows a sample search for “diabetes”:
Notice that your results are separated by the following types of resources: “Reference”, “Magazines & Journals”, “Pharmacy”, “Pamphlets” and “Resources”. Clicking on any of these labeled tabs will show you the different types of resources that are available on your topic. For example, under the “Reference” tab, you will find entries in encyclopedias and other reference sources on diabetes, while under the “Pharmacy” tab, you will find information on drugs used to treat diabetes. Searching in this way allows you to get a broader sense of the materials that are available on your topic.
How to Make Your Searches More Effective
As you can see from the above example, simple searches can bring up a large number of results. In other cases, your search may not bring up any information, or may not bring up the information you are looking for. Learning how to refine your search can improve your results and help you to find what you are looking for. Like most electronic resources, HWRC has advanced search features and specific searching rules that you should learn before using the system. These rules can differ greatly from system to system. Here are some things to consider when searching electronic resources:
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators include AND, OR and NOT. These terms can be very useful in broadening or narrowing a search.
Use “AND” when you want to find resources which contain multiple search terms. For example, if you want to find information about skin cancer, but not about skin or cancer in general, then you would search for “skin AND cancer”.
Use “OR” when you want to find resources which contain one term or another. This is particularly useful for searching on synonyms when you want to broaden your search. For example, to find information on heart health, you might search on “heart OR cardiac”.
Use “NOT” when you want to exclude a particular term from your searches. This is often done to exclude “false” hits which are irrelevant to your search. For example, if you were searching for information on blood diseases, but kept coming up with references to blood pressure, you could search on “blood disease NOT pressure”.
Case Sensitivity
This means that the use of upper and lower case letters will affect the results of your searches. For example, in a case-sensitive database, you might have to capitalize “AIDS” to ensure that information about the disease was found, rather than information about “digestive aids”. HWRC is not a case-sensitive search system.
Punctuation
Things like hyphens and apostrophes are not always recognized by search systems and can result in receiving no hits if you use them incorrectly. For example, HWRC allows hyphens and apostrophes, but not ampersands (the “&” symbol).
Truncation
Search terms may appear in various forms within the resources you are searching. Very often, words have many possible endings. For example, if you want information about medical testing, appropriate search terms might include “test”, “tests” or “testing”. Truncation allows you to avoid having to run separate searches for each of these terms. In HWRC, using the asterisk (*) indicates a truncated search term. Therefore, searching on “test*” will find “test”, “tests” and “testing”.
Wild Cards
Sometimes, you can ask the system to replace only one character in a search term. HWRC allows this kind of search with the exclamation point (!). For example, a search for “test!” will find “test” or “tests”. In this case, the “!” is considered a wild card. Different characters are used to indicate truncation and wild cards in different systems, so make sure to find out which symbols are used before using this function.
Advanced Search
Many electronic resources also have Advanced Search screens, which allow you to create more specific searches. In HWRC, this search screen is found by selecting the “Advanced Search” button to the right of the search bar on the Home page. The page looks like this:
Notice that this page allows you to select Boolean operators, to limit your search to certain types of publications, and to specify date ranges. For example, you could indicate that you only want to see articles from refereed publications (those which have been reviewed by groups of professionals) from May 1, 2007 to October 1, 1007.
Search Tips and Help
As these examples show, it is always a good idea to check out the Search Tips and the Help section in any electronic resource. In HWRC, these are accessed through the “Search Tips” or “Help” links at the top of the Home page. Here, you will find information about the various search features allowed in HWRC as well as information about using HWRC’s subject guide to narrow your searches, general search tips such as how to use synonyms to broaden your search, an explanation of various features of the database, tips on searching the multimedia library, general troubleshooting advice, technical support information and FAQs.
How do I cite sources found in the Health & Wellness Resource Center?
If you need to record exactly where you got your information, it is important to obtain correct citations. This may be helpful for you if you need to return to the source later, or if you are recommending the source to someone else, such as your doctor. Students, in particular, often need citations to be in a specific format. HWRC provides information on how to cite their resources. Go to the “Help” section on the home page and select “Citing Works from HWRC” for detailed information on creating citations.
What other health and medical resources are available on iCONN?
iCONN contains five additional databases of health and medical information, including:
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Medline Plus: This resource is similar to HWRC in its breadth of coverage, and includes a medical encyclopedia and dictionary, health news, a directory and drug information, as well as tutorials, videos of surgical procedures, and information about clinical trials. Like HWRC, it is intended to be a general resource for health consumers.
Science Reference Center: This is a searchable database of scholarly and reference articles on various health and science topics. It is a particularly good resource for college students and others conducting research, or for medical practitioners.
2-1-1 Community Resources Directory: This directory lists contact information for over 4,000 health and human service providers. It can be searched or browsed by categories such as “Health Support Groups” and “Medical Transportation”. Other types of community resources are also listed, and this resource may also be accessed over the phone by dialing 211.
CT Consumer Health Information: This service is meant to serve as a research tool for Connecticut residents with medical questions. It contains resource guides on health issues such as “Navigating the Health Care System”, an “Ask a Librarian” service for residents with health questions, referrals to medical news sources, library and internet resources, and a newsletter containing resources, book reviews and more.
Connecticut Physician Profiles: This is a searchable database of medical practitioners in Connecticut which allows you to see information about a physicians’ education, the location of their current practice, professional activities, awards, publications, and malpractice and disciplinary information.
All of these resources have different features and search capabilities, so be sure to explore their Help or Tips sections to ensure that you are getting the most out of your searches.
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A Note of Caution:
Remember that finding health and medical information online is never a substitute for the services of a medical professional. One thing you cannot find through any website is proper medical care and diagnosis. Be sure to see a medical professional if you are experiencing health problems. A system like this should only be used to supplement the information provided to you by your physician.