Thursday, September 22, 2022

Top 15 Most Popular Health Websites

Top 15 Most Popular Health Websites

Researching healthcare topics, medical conditions, drugs, doctors, hospital, etc….can and is a very confusing process.  The healthcare consumer is frustrated when trying to research healthcare topics.  The following 15 web sites are designed to focus on the most popular web sites with the maximum amount of information available to the consumer.  The 15 Most Popular Health Sites are derived from the  eBizMBA Rank which is a continually updated average of each website’s Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank from both Compete and Quantcast.

The 15 Web Sites listed are set up as links.  Click on the web site name, the web site will appear, click on the the link and you will go directly to the site.

Top 15 Most Popular Health Websites 

1 | WebMD 

WebMD provides valuable health information, tools for managing your health, and support to those who seek information. You can trust that our content is timely and credible.
2 | NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save live.

3 | Yahoo! Health

Yahoo!Health covers a wide range pf healthcare topics and provides valuable information to the healthcare consumer.
4 | MayoClinic

The Mayo Health System has more than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers from the Mayo Clinic that share their expertise to empower you. Find out why Mayo Clinic is the right place for your health care.
5 | MedicineNet

MedicineNet is an online, healthcare media publishing company. We provide easy-to-read, in-depth, authoritative medical information for consumers via its robust, user-friendly, interactive website.
6 | Drugs

Drugs.com is the largest, most widely visited, independent medicine information website available on the Internet. Our aim is to be the Internet’s most trusted resource for drug and related health information. We will achieve this aim by presenting independent, objective, comprehensive and up-to-date information in a clear and concise format for both consumers and healthcare professionals.
7 | EverydayHealth

EverydayHealth operates a leading digital marketing and communications platform for healthcare companies that want to engage with consumers and healthcare professionals.
8 | HealthGrades

At Healthgrades, our mission is to help consumers find the right doctor and the right hospital, for the right care.
19 | Healthline

We want to be your most trusted ally in your pursuit of health and well-being.
110 | Mercola

With all websites, newspapers, magazines, and other publications offering health advice, with every new multi-million dollar TV ad for another proclaimed miracle drug, with any recommendation offered by traditional and natural physicians, it is essential to answer this question above all others: what is their real motivation?
11 | Health

Health.com delivers relevant information in clear, jargon-free language that puts health into context in peoples’ lives. Through medical content, insights from experts and real people, and breaking news, we answer: how it happened, what it feels like, what you can do about it, and why it matters.
12 | MindBodyGreen

Medical News Today (MNT) is owned and operated by MediLexicon International Ltd, a leading healthcare internet publishing company, with headquarters in the United Kingdom and offices in Taiwan.
13 | Medscape

Medscape is the leading online global destination for physicians and healthcare professionals worldwide, offering the latest medical news and expert perspectives; essential point-of-care drug and disease information; and relevant professional education and CME.
14 | RxList

RxList is an online medical resource dedicated to offering detailed and current pharmaceutical information on brand and generic drugs. Founded by pharmacists in 1995, RxList is the premier Internet Drug Index resource.
15 | Medical


Top 10 Health Websites

 

Top 10 Health Websites


WebMD

It’s no surprise that WebMD makes the top of our list of health websites. This platform offers extremely useful health information and tools for those who may be doing their own research. WebMD also boasts highly credible information. WebMD receives an astounding 19 million visitors each month, a majority of which are based in the United States.

Drugs.com

Another great health website, Drugs.com is the go-to place for consumers to learn as much as possible about the benefits, side effects, and costs of various types of medication. It’s the most-used medicine information platform online, and the aim of the platform is to become the web’s most trustworthy platform for consumers to research potential drugs as treatments. Each page on this platform is objective and up to date, making it beneficial to both physicians and consumers alike. Currently, the portal offers information on over 24,000 prescription drugs and receives an average of six million visitors per month.

Men’s Health

This men’s health online magazine is a hotspot for everything related to men’s physical and mental wellbeing. This platform is great for news articles and think pieces related to fitness, wellness, sexual health, and medical technology. Men’s Health receives around 118 million page views each month, making it an excellent platform to advertise health and wellness products.

MayoClinic

Another popular platform for those who want to research medical and health information, Mayo Clinic boasts thousands of doctors, scientists, and medical researchers that contribute to the platform. A well-loved non-profit medical center, MayoClinic shares many of its physicians’ and researchers’ findings on the platform. It’s an excellent source of information for patients as well as researchers who want to find studies to look into. MayoClinic’s website receives around seven million visits per month on average.

Healthline

The goal of Healthline is to be a very trustworthy ally in consumers’ journey towards better health and overall well-being. This website is a great place to find accurate medical information, as well as health advice for consumers.

Health.com

Health.com is a major digital marketing platform for pharmaceutical and healthcare brands that want to communicate with consumers and physicians alike through magazine-style articles. It’s a hotspot for up-to-date news and relatable articles, but it’s also a great way for consumers and physicians to connect with one another as well.

HealthGrades

HealthGrades is fairly different from the other platform we’ve covered. Instead of operating as a source for medical information or social networking, this platform is used by consumers to look up information about their potential doctors, specialists, and hospitals. Users can look at a variety of information involving a particular doctor, right down to a star grade that rates them according to things like overall help, office staff, cleanliness, bedside manner, cost, etc.

MedScape

MedScape is a great international website for healthcare professionals around the globe. They offer the newest medical news and perspectives from experts in a variety of fields. For those who need to discover drug and disease information quickly and with excellent accuracy, MedScape is a great place to discover professional education.

RateMDS

Similar to HealthGrades, Rate MDs is an excellent platform for finding trustworthy reviews of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, and virtually any other professional in the healthcare field. Users can also leave reviews of healthcare facilities. This platform is quite convenient, as users can sort reviews by specialty, city, or physician name. The platform currently has over 2 million physician reviews and millions of viewers each month.

Vitals.com

While RateMds and Healthgrades are similar to Vitals.com, there is one major difference. This platform is more of a place for doctors to attract new patients and improve on one’s reputation as a physician. Many doctors and practices will use Vitals.com to create doctor profiles for this purpose. Many will also place ads for their practices on the platform.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Psoriasis Patients Find Psoriatic Arthritis Screening Worthwhile

 TUESDAY, Sept. 20, 2022 -- Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) screening is acceptable to patients with psoriasis whether they are diagnosed with PsA or not, according to a research letter published online Aug. 17 in the British Journal of Dermatology.

Christine A. Silverthorne, from the University of the West of England in Bristol, and colleagues sought to understand the experience of screening from the perspective of 21 participants with psoriasis. Screening included an examination of skin, joints, hands, feet, scalp, physical tests (e.g., touching toes), height and weight measurement, blood tests, X-rays, magnetic resonance imaging scans, and questionnaires.

The researchers identified three main themes. First, screening was perceived as well-conducted and, overall, a positive and reassuring experience. Participants reported appreciating the thoroughness of the examination and the time to talk with specialists. Secondly, screening provided participants a sense of control over their health. Among those screening positive for PsA, they valued the help they were given in treating their condition, while those screening negative gained an awareness of symptoms for which to watch out. Lastly, participants suggested improvements to the screening process, including using case studies, signposting to support groups, and providing information. They also indicated barriers to screening, which included location, parking, and time of appointments.

"This qualitative study indicates that screening is acceptable and a potentially valuable method to increase the early detection of PsA in patients with psoriasis and improve their clinical outcomes," the authors write.

AI Tool Can Identify Pancreatic Cancer on CT Scans

  A deep learning (DL)-based tool may help detect pancreatic cancer on computed tomography (CT) scans, according to a study published online Sept. 13 in Radiology.

Po-Ting Chen, M.D., from the National Taiwan University College of Medicine in Taipei, and colleagues developed and validated a DL-based tool for detecting pancreatic cancer on CT. Contrast-enhanced CT studies in 546 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer between January 2006 and July 2018 were retrospectively collected and compared to CT studies of 733 controls with a normal pancreas obtained between January 2004 and December 2019. A segmentation convolutional neural network (CNN) and a classifier ensembling five CNNs was developed and validated in the internal test set and a nationwide real-world validation set. The McNemar test was used to compare the sensitivities of the computer-aided detection (CAD) tool and radiologist interpretation.

The researchers found that the DL tool achieved 89.9 and 95.9 percent sensitivity and specificity, respectively, in the internal test set, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.96 and with no significant difference in sensitivity compared with the original radiologist report (96.1 percent). The DL tool distinguished between CT malignant and control studies with 89.7 percent sensitivity and 92.8 percent specificity in a test set of 1,473 real-world CT studies (AUC, 0.95); for malignancies smaller than 2 cm, sensitivity was 74.7 percent.

"The CAD tool may be a useful supplement for radiologists to enhance detection of pancreatic cancer," the authors write.

Performance of COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Tests With Nasal Self-Sampling Examined

 WEDNESDAY, Sept. 19, 2022 -- During the period of omicron emergence, the performance of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests with nasal self-sampling declined, according to a study published online Sept. 14 in The BMJ.

Ewoud Schuit, Ph.D., from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a diagnostic test accuracy study at three public health service COVID-19 test sites from Dec. 21, 2021, to Feb. 10, 2022. Participants had a swab sample taken for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and received a rapid antigen test to perform unsupervised using nasal self-sampling (during the emergence of omicron and when omicron accounted for >90 percent of infections) or with combined oropharyngeal and nasal self-sampling (when omicron accounted for >99 percent of infections; phases 1 and 2, respectively). Flowflex (phase 1 only), MPBio, and Clinitest were evaluated.

The researchers found that the overall sensitivities with nasal self-sampling were 79.0, 69.9, and 70.2 percent for Flowflex, MPBio, and Clinitest, respectively. Compared with those tested for other reasons, the sensitivities were substantially higher in confirmatory testers (93.6, 83.6, and 85.7 percent versus 52.4, 51.5, and 49.5 percent, respectively). When transitioning from omicron accounting for 29 percent of infections to >95 percent of infections, the sensitivities decreased from 87.0 to 80.9 percent, 80.0 to 73.0 percent, and 83.1 to 70.3 percent (statistically significant), respectively. With combined oropharyngeal and nasal self-sampling, sensitivities were 83.0 and 77.3 percent for MPBio and Clinitest, respectively; sensitivities were slightly higher in confirmatory testers (87.4 and 86.1 percent, respectively) and substantially higher in those testing for other reasons (69.3 and 59.9 percent, respectively).

"The performance of rapid antigen tests can be improved by adding oropharyngeal to nasal self-sampling," the authors write.

AACR Issues 12th Annual Cancer Progress Report

 

AACR Issues 12th Annual Cancer Progress Report

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21, 2022 -- Considerable progress has been made to improve, extend, and save lives of patients with cancer in the last year, according to the 12th annual Cancer Progress Report released by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Researchers from the AACR present recent advances affecting cancer patients, highlighting progress made from Aug. 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022, and focusing on cancer incidence, mortality, and survivorship statistics as well as the latest research.

According to the report, the number of cancer survivors reached more than 18 million in the United States as of Jan. 1, 2022. The age-adjusted overall cancer death rate has decreased steadily since the 1990s, with a 2.3 percent decrease every year from 2016 to 2019. Across the clinical cancer care continuum, eight new anticancer therapeutics were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including the first drug for treating uveal melanoma and a first molecularly targeted therapeutic for Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. In addition, the use of 10 anticancer therapeutics was expanded and two new diagnostic imaging agents were approved. Several artificial intelligence-based tools have been developed for improving detection and diagnosis of cancers.

"Targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and other new therapeutic approaches being applied clinically all stem from fundamental discoveries in basic science," Lisa M. Coussens, Ph.D., president of the AACR, said in a statement. "Investment in cancer science, as well as support for science education at all levels, is absolutely essential to drive the next wave of discoveries and accelerate progress."

Erectile Function Mostly Not Impacted by Surgery for BPH

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) surgery can impact sexual function, mainly involving ejaculatory function, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis recently published in European Urology Focus.

Celeste Manfredi, M.D., from the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" in Naples, Italy, and colleagues conducted a systematic literature review to assess current evidence regarding the impact of BPH surgery on sexual function. The analysis included 151 studies (20,531 patients).

The researchers found that a pooled analysis of 48 randomized controlled trials (5,045 individuals) showed no statistically significant changes in the International Index of Erectile Function-5 score versus baseline for transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), laser procedure, and minimally invasive treatment. There was a higher rate of retrograde ejaculation seen after TURP, other electrosurgical procedures, and the entire laser group. After most minimally invasive procedures, there was no statistically significant increase observed in retrograde ejaculation rate. For prostatic urethral lift, a pooled analysis of Male Sexual Health Questionnaire-Ejaculatory Dysfunction Function scores showed no statistically significant difference between baseline and after treatment, but postoperative Bother scores were significantly higher.

"The ultimate goal of future research should be to improve the evidence on the topic to allow scientific societies to provide clear and strong recommendations, and to ameliorate patient counseling at the moment of therapeutic choice," the authors write.

Top 15 Most Popular Health Websites

Top 15 Most Popular Health Websites Researching healthcare topics, medical conditions, drugs, doctors, hospital, etc….can and is a very conf...