Medical webwatch.

Heart Center Encyclopedia, http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/heart-encyclopedia/default.htm, is produced by the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and provides patients with detailed explanations of cardiac pathologies and associated treatment options. This is a comprehensive education package with menu options for "Congenital," "Heart Diseases," "Signs and Symptoms," and "Diagnostic Methods." In addition to textual explanations, many pages offer interactive flash movie presentations ranging from basic introductions to the structure and function of the heart and explanations of the more complicated syndromes and associated anatomical aberrations. This extensively cross-linked encyclopaedia would be an excellent take-away resource for patients.

The UK website Aidsmap, http://www.aidsmap.com/, has won the Patient Information Website Award from the British Medical Association with their comment "a UK based organization that provides cutting edge medical advice to people with HIV and their clinicians." The website is available in 5 languages and the "News" can be browsed via a category listing or by viewing "Latest News." Entries are accompanied by references and Internet links as appropriate. The other menu options are: "Treatment and Care," Worldwide," and "Living with HIV."

Scubadoc's Diving Medicine Online, http://scuba-doc.com/, is compiled by Ernest Campbell, MD, FACS. The website is fronted by 6 drop-down menus: "Easy Navigational Aids," "Diving Fitness Problems," "Problems Due to Gases and Pressure," "Marine and Travel Hazards," "Dive Safety, HBO and Accident Management," and "Forum, Newsletter and Email Services." These categories dive deep into the selected topics in detail including references where available.

The RCGP Ethics site [UK], http://www.rcgp.org.uk/extras/ethics/alpha.asp?letter=a, is an alphabetical retrieval system providing immediate access to a huge range of ethical guidance. While most of the material is outsourced, it is still convenient to have it all collected under one roof. The dates of individual items range from the 1990s to 2006. Although this ethical guidance is specific to the UK, the general principles underpinning the advice are probably universal, and reviewing the UK information will no doubt stimulate a synergistic reconsideration of advice from other countries.

Pain Treatment Topics, http://www.pain-topics.com/index.php, has a virtual avalanche of informational tabs atop the front page, including: "Research Updates," and "Clinical Guidelines," a "CME Locator," "Clinical Concepts," "Opioid and Non-opioid Therapy," "ebriefing," etc. One could spend a whole day exploring this anodyne resource.

Daily Med, http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/about.cfm, from NIH provides high quality information about marketed drugs. This information includes FDA-approved labels (package inserts). The website provides health information professionals and the public with a standard, comprehensive, up-to-date retrieval and download resource of medication content and labeling as found in the package inserts. At the present time, the website does not contain a complete listing of labels for approved prescription drugs, but does contain 1,148 approved prescription drugs. This comprehensive information is returned via a quick A to Z index, and individual drug pages are tabbed to jump to the various components of the drug label. To the left of each medication table is "Find Drug Trial," "MedlinePlus Information," and "Search PubMed Articles. This website is another example of a useful collection of material under one roof.

If you are planning a trip to Europe, then Pollen Info Europe, http://www.polleninfo.org/index.php, might be of interest. The menu tabs are "National Alerts," "Allergy Info," "Latest News," and most interestingly "Forecast"--where the type of plant or tree can be selected for each nation. As an aid to planning, the "Countdown" tab does just that by counting down towards the emergence of the antigen. "Flow Charts" are probably the most useful data offering representation of annual emergence of pollen by type of plant and area, with "Distribution Maps" showing emergence by date of selected plants. There are pollen photomicrographs under the "allergy info" menu.

Browse the interesting online exhibits gallery at the Center for the History of Medicine http://www.countway.med.harvard.edu/rarebooks/exhibits.shtml from the Courtney Library of Medicine, Harvard; or click on "Archives for Women in Medicine" on the left side menu and select "The Stethoscope Sorority" for an especially interesting and illustrated chronology of women in medicine: one that engenders a feeling for the progress of therapeutics and an inexorable crescendo for the female voice in medicine. There is something here for everyone in our extended medical family.