The Times Takes on Consumer Health

This past Tuesday's New York Times had a special section on Decoding Your Health, exploring the maze that is consumer health information.

It's of definite interest to reference librarians, who field medical questions either directly or indirectly on a regular basis.

Perhaps the most useful and best candidates for the reference desk binder (or blog) are You're Sick. Now What?, which gives five rules for researching health on the internet, or Logging on for a Second (or Third) Opinion, which rounds up and reviews a few patient resources.

Of course, the hardest health question I ever got at the reference desk wasn't really human related. It was "How can I tell when my hamster is pregnant?"