Finding trustworthy medical information sources

Jeff Duffey MD

How do you know where to get authoritative medical information to make your best clinical decisions?

Open Evidence offers artificial intelligence for physicians’ use.

If you are a physician, you may use a free medical information platform called Open Evidence. It claims to be the leading peer-reviewed medical information platform. It is said to use artificial intelligence to help doctors discover and understand high quality peer reviewed research.  https://www.openevidence.com/ask/ca1926ba-31e5-492d-97ee-0428514559e5

If you aren’t a physician, or you are a physician who wants to do your own search, there are several sources that are generally known to be reliable.

Ask yourself if the research findings are statistically significant.

While the information may be reliable, it still needs to be examined to determine if it is statistically significant. If the articles cite research studies, were the studies double-blind? Did  the studies have enough participants to show a statistically significant difference? Was there any bias in the selection of participants? Does the article cite the limitations of the studies? How recent were the studies done?

The document should clearly state who the authors are along with their credentials, affiliations, and any connections they have with the products discussed that might bias them.

Look for unbiased resources.

Several government organizations, like the National Institute of Health National Library of Medicine   https://www.nlm.nih.gov/ , are respected for their efforts to ensure their information is reliable. They are not subject to commercial bias and must abide by regulations meant to control quality. On the international scene, the World Health Organization  https://www.who.int/    is well respected.

Seek out peer reviewed articles.

In scholarly journals like the Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA )  https://discovery.researcher.life/search?journal=Jama%20Journal%20Of%20The%20American%20Medical%20Association

 or the New England Journal of Medicine NEJM,  https://www.nejm.org/medical-article-index  peers review the articles before they are accepted. They are looking for some of the same things just mentioned as well as trying to determine whether the document makes a significant contribution to the fund of knowledge about the subject. You may run across journals from other countries, like the British Medical Journal   https://www.bmj.com/research/research     or The Lancet, https://www.thelancet.com/latest-research     that have similar peer review processes. The international origin of an article raises questions about the quality of the peer-review process of that country.

Consider the excellent institutions in your field of inquiry.

If you are looking for information in a particular field, consider the institutions noted for excellence in that field. For example, MD Anderson Cancer Center    https://www.mdanderson.org/research.html   is noted for its expertise in cancer.  Cancer institutes are required to provide public education to get that accreditation. Other clinics in the US include The Mayo Clinic,    https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/  The Cleveland Clinic,    https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health   and  The Johns Hopkins Hospital.   https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/research/research-topics

The members of academic and professional organizations understand the necessity for accurate information for their members. As a psychiatrist, one of my favorite journal is the  journal associated with the American Psychiatric Association   https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families   When I am looking for a topic related to women’s health I might go to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists   https://www.acog.org/clinical    for information in that field.

Whether you use help from AI or do it yourself, the better the information, the better the decision. Good luck searching.

Chip and Dan Heath wrote in Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work that we “spotlight” information that supports our existing beliefs. They think we should instead ask ourselves “disconfirming” questions. By doing that, we will be less likely to let our visceral emotions and narrow focusing lead us into mistakes.

Their advice brings to mind how I fish.  I‘ll use the wrong bait or fish in the wrong spot. When I don’t catch any fish, I’ll recall the advertiser’s claims made about their sure-fire lure I bought. I don’t want to think that I’ve wasted so much time in the wrong place. I’ll double down and stay even longer. I’ll tell myself I’m not patient enough and need to cast my line out more skillfully. Instead, I should look for a “disconfirming” question. I should ask myself why all those other anglers keep buzzing back and forth across the lake in front of me instead of sitting in one place. How about you, do you fish (think) like this or do you buzz back and forth rethinking all your possibilities?

I ‘ve always liked that quote from Harry Stack Sullivan, who accepted his own humanity and used his understanding of it to help others. I would invite you to join me in using our humanity to help each other brainstorm about some of the important issues we face as people living on a common planet and sharing common hopes for our lives and for those of the ones we love.While we experience our lives individually and have individual problems, I mean for this site to be about our problems as social issues. I see what we say  here as on the order of brain-storming ideas and opinions that others might want to consider at their own risk.

I had a hard time finding a name for my publishing company because so many of the names were already taken. I settled on Cairde, Karuna & Hedd. As I understand it, the words  mean Friendship, Compassion, and Peace. That is the approach I want to take to this site. Jeff

P.S., I need to make a disclaimer here that I cannot give you medical advice and I urge you to consult your physician before you make any decisions regarding a pregnancy or any other health related matters. I don’t warrant that anything I say or others say here is accurate or complete. Even though I hope you do not have any problems from reading the things here, I take no responsibility for how this affects you.