Web Sites Worth Watching

Psychiatric Services offers a monthly listing of mental-health-related Web sites and other sites of interest. The list changes monthly as new sites are identified, existing sites add new features, and different categories of sites are included. We'd like maintaining the list to be an interactive process, so tell us about your favorite sites or what you'd like to be able to find on the Web. You can reach us by e-mail at [email protected].

Associations

Child Trends—www.childtrends.org This nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization collects and analyzes data on children and their families. The Web site offers summaries of current research projects, such as the effects of welfare reform on children; press releases and statements; access to the group's newsletter, The Child Indicator; and a listserv for professionals.

American Academy of Neurology—www.aan.com Accessible to both AAN members and nonmembers, this site provides an overview of neurology as a medical specialty and information about the Academy's goals, activities, events, and sections. Visitors can locate AAN member neurologists who practice in their geographic area.

Journals

Idea Central—www.epn.org/ideacentral/health/index.htmlIdea Central is the virtual magazine of the Electronic Policy Network (EPN). EPN calls itself "the front door to progressive policy on the Web." It includes more than 60 member organizations. The health policy section of Idea Central provides brief analyses of current issues.

International Journal of Psychoanalysis—ijpa.org/index.html Highlights of the site include a free trial subscription, an opportunity to participate in an online discussion of recently published articles, transcripts of discussions about past articles, and a link to listings of conferences with psychoanalytic themes.

Government

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality—www.ahrq.gov This agency of the Department of Health and Human Services offers a wealth of information online, including AHRQ funding opportunities, research findings, information on quality assessment, clinical information, and practice guidelines.

Medical

All Health Net—www.allhealthnet.com Designed for both professionals and consumers, this portal links to more than 18 million pages of medical information globally. Sections range from finding a physician or dentist to finding information about sports medicine or medical texts online.

Health News

New York Times Science/Health—www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/national/index-science.html After applying for immediate, free registration, users can read the full text of daily and archived articles on all aspects of health, health policy, and current research, along with special features and weekly columns.

Other Useful Resources

University of Illinois at Chicago Project on Genocide, Psychiatry, and Witnessing—www.psych.uic.edu/research/genocide The program seeks to develop innovative ways to understand and intervene with survivors of genocide through interdisciplinary research. Its Web site offers survivors' testimonies, research on Bosnian and Kosovar refugee mental health, and ideas for strengthening a refugee community's research capacity and rebuilding systems of mental health care in war-torn areas.

Mental Health Net—www.cmhc.com This site, which has won more than 30 awards for excellence, is aimed at both consumers and professionals. Sections feature recent news and provide information about disorders and treatments, managed care and administration, and professional resources.

Featured Site

eMedicine—www.emedicine.com

eMedicine is a medical information site developed over the past four years by more than 10,000 physician authors and editors from nearly 1,000 academic medical institutions. The aim is to make available, free and online, more than 50 medical subspecialty texts that can be updated as soon as new research information becomes available. Each topic is peer reviewed by four physicians and a doctor of pharmacy, whose names are listed. At this time, the site offers an 8,000-page searchable textbook on emergency medicine. A separate and extensive series of pediatric subspecialty textbooks is planned, as is a consumer text covering diagnosis and treatment of 500 of the most common diseases.