Internet Sites for International Healthcare Research
University
of Minnesota Library Catalog – online at http://mncat1.lib.umn.edu/Lum.Run
Do keyword searches with [country name] and health;
[country name] and health care; [country name] and healthcare; [country
name] and medicine; [country name] and medical; [country name] and physician;
[country name] and doctor; [country name] and medical and specialist; [country
name] and specialist; [country name] and dentist; [country name] and nurse;
[country name] and medical education; [country name] and medical licensure;
[country name] and credentialing, [country name] and outcomes, [country
name] and health reform; [country name] and insurance; [country name] and
managed care; [country name] and medical legislation; etc.
Search
National Library of Medicine Catalog – online at http://wwwindex.nlm.nih.gov/databases/locator.html
(Requires telnet application) (Use
keyword searches indicated above)
Search CLICNET
Libraries (consortium of Twin Cities area smaller academic libraries) online
at
http://www.stkate.edu/library/
(Requires telnet application)see above – login as "scpac"
Search major
Twin Cities public libraries at http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/catalog.htm
(Minneapolis Public Library – Requires telnet
application – see above)
St. Paul Public
Library – http://www.stpaul.lib.mn.us/ (Requires
telnet application – see above)
Hennepin
County Library – http://www.hennepin.lib.mn.us/catalog/index_cs.html
(Requires telnet application – see above)
Search Books in Print
In your local public library look at the hard copy editions
of Library of Congress Country Profiles
(Most likely shelved in the Government Documents area
– be aware of date of publication)
At the University of Minnesota Biomedical Library look
for your country in Implementation of the Global Strategy for Health
for All by the Year 2000 – Eighth Report of the World Health Situation.
This is located in the basement of the library in the
reference section – Call number WA530.1 I34 - 1993 U of MN only has volumes
1,3, & 5 – Vol 1 is global information – Vol 3 is North and South America
information – Vol 5 is European information - cannot be checked out – but
you may photocopy your country information at the photocopier in that reference
area ($.08/page cash).
Journal/Periodical Literature
Do searches of HealthStar/Medline databases using subject searches on the specific country name. If too many results appear for that country, add text words to narrow the search, i.e., "physicians", "health", "healthcare", "health care", "health reform", "managed care", ‘insurance", "medicine", "medical legislation", "physicians", "medical specialties", "dentists", "dental specialties", "nurses", "nursing specialties", "medical education", ‘licensure", "credentialing", "outcomes", etc.
Medline can be searched online at: PubMed
http://www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/medline.html
or at HealthGate
http://www.healthgate.com/HealthGate/MEDLINE/search-adv.shtml
Journal articles may be retrieved from bound periodicals
at the U. of MN Biomedical Library – photocopy at $.08/page – cash
or possibly retrieved by using interlibrary loan
through the United HealthCare Technology Assessment Library – Wendy
Urciouli, Director of Library – phone 860-702-5097 – fax 860-702-5093 –
email Wendy Urciouli on ccmail. Please give her the complete citation –
it is best to fax her a copy of the citation. It may take weeks for the
interlibrary loan service to locate the article. Wendy may call you to
verify your need if the copyright charge is particularly excessive. Currently,
the Hartford library is not charging us for these articles, but they do
then absorb the high copyright charges.
If these avenues don’t work, use a document delivery service
for article retrieval.
Advanced Information Consultants – phone 612-379-4080
– fax 612-379-4031. United HealthCare should have an account established
there – (it may be in the name of Applied HealthCare Informatics). Carolyn
Easton has pricing rates for these services.
Internet Searches
Search the major search engines:
Inference http://www.inference.com/infind/
Northern Lights http://www.nlsearch.com/
AltaVista Advanced Search http://altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=aq
Lycos Advanced Search http://lycospro.lycos.com/lycospro-nojava.html
HotBot http://www.hotbot.com/ (Use the SuperSearch)
Savvy Search http://www.aserve.net/savy.html
Use combinations of the terms listed above.
READ the Help instructions on the individual search engine pages to fully utilize their capabilities.
Some search engines let you also search only the homepages of a particular country. This can be a useful limiting feature. If you find information in a foreign language, look for a feature on the homepage that will bring up English translated pages. Or, use the "Babelfish" translator available through AltaVista to translate a portion of the text to see if information is of any value. (Babelfish works primarily with European languages.) http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate?
Try to find:
the country’s Ministry of Health
an impartial list of these is at: http://www.who.org/hst/sci/e/linksoff.htm
or http://www.sum.dk/uk/uk_links.htm
homepage for country statistics;
home page for the country’s embassy - an impartial
list of these is at: http://www.embassy.org/
homepage for physician organizations (general
and specialist);
homepage for national medical library;
homepages for medical schools;
Use the search feature of the homepage of the World
Health Organization (WHO) at http://www.who.org
Also look at the publications page of the WHO and search
their catalog.
Also search the regional
WHO internet site that applies to your country. http://www.who.ch/aboutwho/regional.htm
Search publications, if available at the regional site.
A good list of starting links regarding global health: http://cussler.nis.pitt.edu/HOME/GHNet/GHKR.html
This is on the Global Health Network at: http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/GHNet/GHNet.html
Once on any Internet site – look for an email address
or feature. You may get a much quicker response to a particular question
by emailing than through postal mail.
Other Web sites to consider:
CIA World Factbook http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/country-frame.html
UN/ECE Statistical Division http://www.unece.org/stats/stats_h.htm
European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS/Tuberculosis http://www.ceses.org/
OECD
Inputs and Throughputs http://www.oecd.org/els/health/fad_2.htm
(# of physicians; # of inpatient care beds; average length
of inpatient stay
OECD
National Expenditure on Health http://www.oecd.org/els/health/fad_1.htm
OECD
Statistics http://www.oecd.org/statlist.htm
Pan American Health Organization Country Health Profiles http://www.paho.org/english/country.htm
Africa Online http://www.africaonline.com/AfricaOnline/coverhealth.html
Library of Congress Country Studies http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html
Library of Congress Handbook of Latin American Studies Online http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/
World Pages http://www.worldpages.com/global.html
National Libraries of Europe http://portico.bl.uk/gabriel/en/eurocoun.html
European Medical School Information System http://www.yi.com/emsis/