Consumer Health Resources: Patient Education

Freely available online.
MedlinePlus is the National Institutes of Health's Web site for patients and their families. Health professionals and consumers alike can depend on it for information that is authoritative and up-to-date. Both the Health Topics and Drug & Supplement sections can be used as patient education handouts, with links to additional high-quality consumer health education. The topic overviews are also available in several different languages.

Part of CMU Libraries' Micromedex subscription database.
CareNotes covers patient education from pre-care, inpatient, and discharge instructions to emergency department and ambulatory education, including topics ranging from disease and procedure to medication education. Is written between the 5th-to-7th grade reading levels using health literacy standards. Available in up to 15 languages.

Part of CMU Libraries' AccessMedicine subscription database.
Providing identical content for all of the Access products, the Patient Education Handouts are divided into four modules: Adult Advisor, Acute Advisor, Medicines Advisor, and Pediatric Advisor. All handouts are downloadable PDFs. Many of the handouts are also available in additional languages, with the exception of the Acute Advisor module.

Part of CMU Libraries' ClinicalKey subscription database.
This ClinicalKey module is drawn primarily from ExitCare Patient Information, Elsevier Gold Standard Patient Education, and professional organization resources. There are a limited number of Spanish language resources included here.

AAFP Conditions A to Z is a patient-information tool that’s been written and reviewed by physicians and patient education professionals at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). It is written for sixth to eighth grade levels, with some information also available in Spanish.