MedlinePlus-Health Resource for Amateurs

Medlineplus is a government run website that allows anyone not only medical professionals to search for any health issue and links them to related news articles and other media. At first glance, the site was not aethestically pleasing, the colors being a bit childish for my taste, but the overall organization compensated for this weakness. The site was easy to navigate with all of its search functions in a neat menu bar at the top of the page. I was able to search for items related to my topic of "ovarian cancer" with the search yielding 675 results comprising of articles, encyclopedia entries, etc. The search items were well organized and gave concise synopses of their content and the source from which the item came from. Being that this is a government website, the infomation comes from a variety of sources and authors, which are noted in the search results. The sources of information are reliable and legitimate, giving the site much value. In addition to the collection results, the search also brought up a box containing a brief overview of ovarian cancer and a useful diagram as well. I liked how this search feature saves the user an extra step in having to look up a topic using the "encyclopedia" and/or "dictionary" feature elsewhere on the site. Upon clicking on an item, the item opens in a new window, therefore eliminating the need to navigate back and forth between pages. The article that caught my attention was released just around four months ago, just going to show the website's commitment to being up to date with its information. The article was entitled "New Evidence Report Finds Most Genomic Tests to Identify or Treat Ovarian Cancer Have Not Shown Clinical Value," which basically posed the question of what options women are left with if genomic tests fail to detect ovarian cancer and prevent it in the long run. The article came from a very notable source, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which attained its report from experts at Duke University. Despite its scholarly nature, the article itself was very readable and written in layman's terms. The website even encourages users to submit questions in their contact section as well as addressing many frequently asked questions. Overall, the site really does serve its purpose, which is to accurately inform without worry of third-party interference and extraneous features. I give this site a rating of 9 for its navigable and thorough search feature.