The U.S. healthcare landscape has been radically transformed as millions of previously uninsured Americans access coverage for the first time thanks to the Affordable Care Act. What an opportunity this presents for professional writers who sift through complicated information and conflicting opinions, making coherent sense of emerging trends.
List of Health Resources to Create Accurate Content
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) aims to acquire essential knowledge about living systems’ nature and behavior. This knowledge is applied to improve health, prolong life, and reduce illness and disability.
National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM)
The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) strives to advance medicine and enhance public health by providing equal access to biomedical information for U.S. health professionals. Additionally, it improves individuals’ access to information, enabling them to make informed decisions about their health.
MedlinePlus
MedlinePlus, a website by the National Institutes of Health, offers understandable information about diseases, conditions, and wellness topics for patients and their families. It provides reliable and up-to-date health information for free.
PubMed
PubMed, a resource available since 1966, searches biomedical literature, life sciences, health, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering. It also links to other NCBI molecular biology resources.
ClinicalTrials.gov
ClinicalTrials.gov, a web-based resource, offers easy access to information on both publicly and privately supported clinical studies. It serves patients, families, healthcare professionals, researchers, and the public, providing details on various diseases and conditions under study.
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) accelerates scientific and medical breakthroughs to improve human health. NHGRI conducts cutting-edge research, develops new technologies, and studies the impact of genomics on society.
Pillbox
Pillbox, an initiative of the National Library of Medicine, offers data and images for various medications available in the United States, including prescription, over-the-counter, homeopathic, and veterinary medications.
Healthfinder.gov
Healthfinder.gov, a reliable resource, provides information on a wide range of health topics from government and non-profit organizations, ensuring access to the latest and most trustworthy health information online.
medRxiv
medRxiv, a preprint server for the clinical research community, allows researchers to share manuscripts before peer review and publication. It facilitates the early dissemination of new findings and enables authors to receive feedback to improve their final published articles.
World Health Organization (WHO)
The World Health Organization (WHO) operates globally to promote health, ensure universal health coverage, protect people from health emergencies, and enhance overall well-being. WHO’s website provides information on global health issues, epidemic diseases, and the interconnections between diseases and society.
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic’s mission is to inspire hope and contribute to health and well-being by delivering excellent patient care and conducting integrated clinical practice, education, and research. Their website offers detailed information on diseases, conditions, treatments, and features a symptom checker to aid individuals in understanding their health concerns.
Assessing Sources for Health Writing
Good health content can strike that sweet spot between evergreen and newsworthy if your writers know how to cull the web for credible, research-based sources.
When assigning health, nutrition, exercise, and even some beauty articles, be sure to give clear guidelines to your freelance health writers to make the most of your content. By using solid research, the resulting articles will be more valuable and offer greater opportunities for naturally embedded links, which helps strengthen search positioning.
Conversely, poorly sourced articles can reflect poorly on your agency, opening the door to plagiarism or even shoddy health-related advice that could endanger someone’s health.
Domain Diligence
Encourage your writers to research health-related articles by pursuing sources backed by credible research and verifiable claims. A good way to separate the scams from the scholars is by looking closely at domain names.
Typically, websites that end in .org, .gov, or .edu will offer informative content linked to reliable studies. Too often, health information at .com domains can be uncredited or even factually inaccurate.
It can be useful for writers to check out the language used on .com sites to help translate scientific information into layman’s terms but try to discourage linking to for-profit sites that tout the health benefits of products, foods, or supplements.
Beyond Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an incredible source for beginning health research, but even more useful is the list of resources included at the end of each entry.
Encourage your writers to follow up on the references and further reading sections offered at the end of each entry to get additional primary evidence to strengthen the credibility of their health content.
Hospital and University Sites
Depending on the health topics you assign, you may want to point your writers toward hospitals that are backed by a major university, like the University of Maryland Medical Center.
For an even greater variety of resources, try nationally funded organizations, like the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which links visitors to a range of scientific studies in the fields of DNA, genetics, nutrition, and more.
User-Friendly Sites
If you’re looking to assign a batch of articles that doesn’t require wading through technical jargon, there are plenty of easy-to-use sites for health-related research.
For simple blog posts or white papers on nutritious foods, your writers can try World’s Healthiest Foods, a nonprofit site devoted to compiling research, news, and nutritious recipes. HealthFinder is another approachable site and includes a range of information on health topics, all backed by the support of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
While it may be time-consuming to establish guidelines and vet sources, a solid plan for assessing the credibility of your health content is key to making, ahem, “healthy” contributions to this robust niche market.
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