Public Health: General Resources

"This Centers for Disease Control site presents educational materials on prevalent environmental health issues, in English and Spanish, aimed at health care professionals, health educators, communities, and the general public. The first two groups can earn free continuing education (CE) credits from various agencies by studying the material and passing online tests. Topics, which expire after three years for CE purposes but remain available while updated, include heavy metals, asthma triggers, pesticides, and solvents. Undergraduates, including those not majoring in health sciences, may find the Case Studies in Environmental Medicine useful for research, because they are written by identified experts and reference peer-reviewed information and current diagnostic and treatment standards. Grand Rounds in Environmental Medicine are one-hour Web streaming or slide/script training courses for professionals; they lack a reference list but provide an opportunity for CE credits. The Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit offers training, testing, credits, and additional resources for professionals serving children. For the public and students needing only a quick overview of a topic, Community Environmental Health Education Presentations are shorter Web streaming or script/slide presentations with less technical detail, but no clear authorship or references. Links to patient information sheets, Public Health Statements, and other ATSDR resources abound. The site is clearly laid out, attractive, and responsive." Choice, November 2009.

Integrates cultural information into clinical practice.

"Health and Environmental Information Online (HERO), a continuously updated database of "hundreds of thousands" of sources considered for and/or used in human and ecosystem risk assessments, is prepared by the EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA). The recent public release of this database provides a unique opportunity for users to discover sources deemed important by NCEA literature researchers, who welcome suggestions for additional items to consider for inclusion. Although most sources are peer-reviewed journal articles, the database includes other articles, books, book chapters, reports, patents, Web sites, computer programs, pamphlets, public laws, and personal communications. The attractive home page summarizes content, offers topic browsing, and shows links to recent risk assessments and related sources, FAQs, and the search page.

Although searching is straightforward, help with searching, viewing, refining, and exporting results to bibliographic software appears on every page via the How to Use HERO link. To view the full record of a source, users click within its row and scroll to the bottom of the page. Full records link to risk assessments, if any, that include the source; some also display links to publicly available content, institutionally subscribed material, or a publisher's Web site for purchasing source material. The scope is rather broad: in an attempt to force a negative search, this reviewer searched for "elephants" and found 19 journal articles, although a sampling of those records indicated that they were not used as sources in risk assessments." from Choice September 2010.

You can access statistical data from the Human Development Report (HDR) and resources to help you better understand this data. You will also find helpful information about the human development index (HDI) and other indices, links to other background materials, data resources and on-going debates and discussions on human development statistics.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington rigorously measuring the world’s most pressing health issues and providing scientific evaluations of health system and health program performance in order to guide health policy and accelerate global health progress.

The Grey Literature Report is a bimonthly publication of The New York Academy of Medicine Library alerting readers to new grey literature publications in health services research and selected public health topics.

The Office of Health Economics provides independent research, advisory and consultancy services on policy implications and economic issues within the pharmaceutical, health care and biotechnology sectors.

The OHE has an international reputation, for the quality and independence of its research, which is safeguarded through our Policy Board and Editorial Board.

An online, searchable version of Dr. John Snow's seminal work on epidemiology from 1855.

The success of Quality of Life (QOL) and Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) studies depends a great deal on the choice of appropriate instruments. They must be selected according to the domains they measure and the populations and pathologies for which they are designed. Practical issues, such as the availability of different translations, copyrights, and access to instruments are also major criteria in the choice of instruments. (Has a free access and member access level: https://eprovide.mapi-trust.org/about/about-proqolid )

The RWJF DataHub tracks state-level data and allows users to customize and visualize facts and figures on key health and health care topics. Sponsored by RWJF and the Health Policy and Management Division of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

Epiville, a learning tool developed specifically for Principles of Epidemiology (P6400), is a set of interactive web-based exercises created by faculty in the Department of Epidemiology and produced by the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. The primary goal of Epiville is to provide an enhanced web-based learning environment so that students can most efficiently master the main principles of the course. Separate modules serve as weekly homework assignments. In these exercises, you will assume the role of an intern at the Department of Health in the fictional city of Epiville where you will investigate a series of emerging public health problems. As you begin your investigation, you will gather relevant data including TV and radio reports, information materials from the Epiville Department of Health, and interviews with local residents. You will then use the information you have collected to address key analytic and theoretical questions. Each week's assignment is intended to complement material from course lectures, reading assignments and seminar discussions by simulating the hands-on experience of applying epidemiologic methods.