Researching safely

Trying to research healthcare conditions can be scary as there may be incorrect or fake content on the internet. To help you search confidently, we have created this guidance to help you.

Below you will find a video that explains how you can search the internet safely for healthcare information. If you cannot access the video, you may also read the transcript underneath.

How to find information you can trust on the internet

Hello, and welcome to this short video on how to find information you can trust on the Internet. In this video, I will share our top trustworthy sites and tell you what to look out for when checking the quality of health information. 

Evidence based healthcare

My name is Helen and I'm a clinical librarian based in an NHS hospital library. All NHS hospitals have a library which provides high quality evidence to support decisions made by healthcare professionals. All working together to improve patient care. We understand that receiving a diagnosis is difficult, and can be scary, so it's important for you to know where to go for trustworthy information and to be able to recognise low quality health information. 

Information overload

There are at least two billion websites on the Internet and there is no organisation or quality control, which can lead to misinformation and fake news. Health information can come from a wide variety of sources online, including social media, but it is not always reliable. 

Misinformation and fake news

Stories found on websites, social media, and in newspaper articles can be based on scientific research. So, what's happening here to turn high quality health information into low quality health information? On the screen you will see some claims that have been fact checked by websites that we will look at later in the video. Often, the information is mediated, interpreted, and summarised by third parties. The real findings are often lost in favour of exaggerated headlines or clickbait. This leads to contradictory or confusing reports that say the opposite of each other, and it can even be politically motivated.

How do we tell if it's any good?

I'm going to share with you some questions to ask yourself when deciding. Here is one checklist of many others that you could follow. www.was developed by Buzz health and well-being service Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. It's an acronym. Which stands for who, when, where, and stop. So, let's go through each of them. 

Who? Who wrote it? Why are they writing it? Is there information about the author or the organisation? Are they a trustworthy source of information and do they link to the original evidence that they are commenting on?

When. When was it published? Is it still current and credible? When was the website last updated? 

Where? What type of website is it on? What part of the world is the website coming from? Information from other countries may not be relevant to the UK. Is the site free from adverts? 

Stop. Stop and think before you follow the advice. To watch a quick two-minute video on the www. checklist, follow the link on this page. 

Trustworthy sites

Now, you may not always have time to go through the information and check its quality, so if you're not sure, next we have four reliable websites followed by four fact checking websites. We have the NHS, Patient, Health Talk, and MedlinePlus. Let's look at these in a little more detail.

NHS

Firstly, the NHS website is updated on a regular basis. You can use the headings at the top of the page or you can go straight to the search bar at the top right and type in what you are looking for. Once you hit enter, you will see a list of results relating to your search. It's better to type just a few words rather than sentences when searching.

Patient

Next is Patient. This website has got information on conditions but also blogs. The blogs are often written by journalists but are checked by health professionals, so you know they are reliable. You can use the headings at the top of the page, or you can go straight to the search bar at the top right to search for conditions, symptoms, and medicines. 

Health talk

Next is Health Talk. This website has information on different health conditions and is developed by clinicians and the public. It has a lot of videos of real people talking about their real-life experiences which can be really helpful to listen to. Once again, you can use the search bar at the top right to search for a specific condition, or you can click on the A-Z button to browse through Health Talk topics.

Medline plus

Finally, we have Medline Plus. This website has information on different health topics, conditions, medicines, and also has a medical encyclopedia. One thing to highlight is that it's an American website, so if you're looking for information on medicines, the names could be different because the American brand names are different. When using a computer, this website also allows you to translate the information to different languages.

Fact checking websites

Next, we have our four fact checking websites. Health Feedback, Full Fact, Snopes and Reuters. These can be used to Fact Check information that you have found online or on social media, just like the information and fake news examples included at the beginning of the video. These sites have independent teams dedicated to fact checking so that individuals can make well informed decisions about their health and in other areas.

Full fact

This is full fact. You can search for information that you would like to check using the search bar at the top right and all the other websites mentioned work the same way.

For further support

We have now come to the end of the video. For further support, we suggest visiting the Macmillan Cancer Support website. Macmillan offers guidance on living with cancer, treatment and drugs, finances, and has a large supportive online community.

You can also visit your local Public Library and ask to be directed to the health collection if you would like to borrow books to take home.

And finally, you can visit the home page for the cancer division under your hospital for more information.

I hope this video was helpful and wish you all the best. Thank you.