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MEDLINEplus: Featuring Interactive Health Tutorials and Email News AlertsInteractive Health Tutorials Interactive Health Tutorials are one of many useful features for consumers and healthcare professionals available through MEDLINEplus <www.medlineplus.gov>, a free service of the National Library of Medicine. More than 165 topics are presented in an interactive, multimedia format using graphics and sound. consumer health information topics are arranged in four categories:
Medical topics range from alopecia to craniotomy for aneurysms. These tutorials require a Flash plug-in, version 4 or above, which is readily available as a free download. The Interactive Health Tutorials, a product of the Patient Education Institute <www.patient-education.com>, are designed to meet the needs of a multitude of users. 
Healthcare professionals can use these tutorials as a patient education tool to supplement and enhance existing teaching methods. Consumers will find the textual information written in easy to understand language, and each page of the topic contains a single concept explained using both graphics and animation. In addition, audio narration of the full text makes this an excellent resource for those with low literacy skills or low vision. Large on-screen buttons and simple instructions make navigation easy for even the novice computer user. Users can proceed through the self-paced tutorials at their own speed. While moving through the pages, questions are posed to assess and verify comprehension, and responses receive instant feedback, helping to reinforce concepts. A summary of each module can also be printed for off-line reading. Email Alerts from MEDLINEplus Staying abreast of new topics or sites added to MEDLINEplus has just become easier. You can subscribe to a variety of MEDLINEplus listservs, allowing you to customize weekly or daily e-mail announcements for all consumer health or only selected topics, such as children’s health, diabetes, mental health, senior health, and women’s health. Subscribing is easy using the <Sign up now> link located on the home page. Once completed you will receive only the news headlines, announcements, and updates you selected. Turn to MEDLINEplus for user-friendly and up to date health information. Recently, consumers rated MEDLINEplus as a score of 86—the highest score for a federal e-government Web site—on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) <www.theacsi.org>. The ACSI tracks trends in customer satisfaction and provides valuable benchmarking insights of the consumer economy for companies, industry trade associations, and government agencies. --Michelle L. Burda |
