Reviews

This article originally appeared in BMJ USA

• The Internet can help a busy practitioner keep abreast of the burgeoning volume of medical literature in many ways. www.amedeo.com/index.htm is a simple yet effective resource. Choose a topicthere is a fair selectionpick your preferred journals, and a weekly literature digest with citation details will be emailed to you. This is a helpful means of minimising information overload.
• If you are interested in the field of travel health then you might want to check out www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb/lcdc/osh/prof_e.html. A Canadian initiative, this site is a well produced links page connecting with a range of helpful resources. It begins with a list of travel health issues currently in the news.
• Ever got lost in a sea of acronyms and not had a clue what they meant? Well www.pharma-lexicon.com, a collection of pharmaceutically related acronyms, is one site that might help. The database is searchable using an inhouse search engine or via an index. In addition, there are other good collections available from this site such as libraries, journals, and other useful data related to the pharmaceutical arena.
• The National Health Service (NHS) lies at the centre of British medicine and its history touches not only its staff but also the whole population. So a site that looks at the history of the NHS since its launch in 1948 (www.nhshistory.com) is likely to have broad appeal. Although this site is not fully comprehensive, it is a good chronicle of the main events in the NHS. A frame on the left side of the site acts as a guide to the main topics. The webmaster is keen for feedback.

Footnotes

We welcome suggestions for web sites to be included in future Netlines. Readers should contact Harry Brown at the above email address.

Harry Brown, general practitioner. 

Leeds, UK DrHarry{at}dial.pipex.com