Information and Referral Resources

Office of Patient Protection,
Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy
Free Care Helpline: (617) 988-3222

Greater Boston Legal Services
(617) 371-1234
Legal representation

City of Boston Elderly Commission
(617) 635-4646
Information and advocacy

Massachusetts Division of Insurance
(617) 521-7777
Nongroup health insurance information

Massachusetts Office of Patient Protection
800-436-7757
Information and advocacy

Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
For information and referral for mental health/substance abuse problems, call the DMH hotline at: (800) 221-0053.

Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Children With Special Health Care Needs (617) 624-5070

Prescription Advantage
Prescription Advantage is a prescription drug insurance plan available to all Massachusetts residents age 65 and older, as well as younger individuals with disabilities who meet income and employment guidelines. Call 1-800-AGE-INFO (1-800-243-4636) TDD/TTY 1-877-610-0241

Kaleigh Mulligan Program
The Kaleigh Mulligan Program is a special Medicaid program that enables severely disabled children living at home to qualify for Medicaid despite parental income that might otherwise make them ineligible. For more information, or an application, call Customer Service at MassHealth (Medicaid) at: (800) 841-2900.

Medical Security Program
The Medical Security Plan helps people receiving unemployment benefits to pay for their health insurance premiums. For more information, call Blue Cross Blue Shield, which administers the plan at: (800) 914-4455.

MedlinePlus
Consumer health information on more than 700 topics provided by the National Library of Medicine.

e-Mental Health in Central Massachusetts
Quality information about mental health conditions and diseases as well as links to services available to the Central Massachusetts region.

Pediatric Library
The Pediatric Family Resource Library is located on the second floor of the Benedict Building in the UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center.

Drug Information Portal
Information on more than 12,000 different medications provided by the National Library of Medicine.

Lab Tests Online
Find information on many clinical lab tests that are part of routine care as well as diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of conditions and diseases.

Hospital Compare
From the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Provides information on how well the hospitals in an area care for all their adult patients with certain medical conditions.

Public Information on Cancer Prevention 
Information about cancer in general, specific cancers, and lifestyle choices to help prevent or reduce risks for cancer.

General Medical Research

National Library of Medicine (NLM)
NLM contains the largest collection of health and biomedical related information in the world.  Located on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, NLM houses books, journals, and microfilms covering topics ranging from biomedical technology to the social sciences. NLM's extensive collections are online and are available to the public.

• NLM Gateway integrates most of the library's databases so they all may be accessed with a single search. Some categories in NLM Gateway search results include journal articles, citations, books, serials, and audiovisual materials. NLM Gateway is a good search tool for individuals who are new to the NLM system.
• MEDLINE Plus is NLM's consumer friendly Web site that is updated daily and contains information regarding over 600 diseases. It also lists a medical encyclopedia and dictionary, health information in Spanish, prescription drugs, and links to clinical trials.
• MEDLINE/PubMed is NLM's searchable database. It contains abstracts and text from almost 4500 journals. Articles are updated weekly and date back to 1966.  Topics cover medicine, nursing dentistry, veterinary medicine, and the health care system.  Most articles are from scholarly journals, and access to the information listed on MEDLINE.
• PubMed Central is a digital archive of approximately 75 life sciences journals.  Queries may be entered by author name, journal title, or other search terms.  This database of journals is available for the public to search.
• Medical Encyclopedia The Adam Health Illustrated Encyclopedia includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries, and surgeries. It also contains an extensive library of medical photographs and illustrations.
• The Dictionary feature is a great way to check the spelling of a medical word or its definition.
• DIRLINE is a Directory of Health Organizations including organizations where patients can go for treatment and organizations that provide other types of patient support.  DIRLINE's search tool allows the public to search for health organizations by key word and provides toll free numbers.
• LOCATORplus is an online catalog of books, journals, and audiovisuals.  This search tool allows the public to complete a simple search by key term and find out where to locate specific articles.
• NIHSeniorHealth provides health information for older adults.  This Web site, created in conjunction with the National Institute on Aging (NIA), has a topic index of research, by diseases relevant for older adults.
• TOXNET is a database of research on toxicology, environmental health, and hazardous chemicals.  The public may search for information regarding toxins by keyword or term.

Health Finder
Health Finder is a gateway consumer health and human services information Web site from the United States government. It is intended to lead users to selected online publications and medical journals, clearinghouses, databases, Web sites, and support and self-help groups, as well as the government agencies and organizations that produce reliable information for the public. The health library provides links to information (some of which is to the NLM Web site) such as medical dictionaries, health and medical journals, and medical encyclopedia.

The American Medical Association (AMA) library page provides access to scientific journals, news, medical science and education, and many links to other medical sites. It also provides free access to full text E books, such as The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Treatment medical textbook and more.

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) includes a search feature and a list of which editions of JAMA are available online (whether full text, abstracts, or index only) under past issues. 

Medem
Medem, an information partnership of many medical societies, is a communications network designed to facilitate online access to information and care.  Research is organized into learning centers and by disease, by phase of life, and by therapy.  Learning center topics include pregnancy, living with rheumatoid arthritis, coping with chemotherapy, managing Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, bleeding disorders, and more.

Consumer Technology Evaluation Center (TEC) Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
The Consumer Technology Evaluation Center (TEC) Blue Cross Blue Shield Association provides information to health care consumers about technologically advanced health care treatments and procedures. This internet resource assists both patients and physicians by explaining new scientific treatments and providing information needed to make informed health care decisions. 

Permanente Medicine
Permanente Medicine provides public access to The Permanente Journal, which features articles on clinical practices, research, book reviews, health systems management, and is searchable by topic (the search feature is on the top of each journal Web page).  It also allows you access to the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research allows you to search its studies.