ROCHESTER, MINN - Mayo Clinic Health Oasis, www.mayohealth.org, has added more free services for people who use the Internet to find answers to their questions about health and medicine. Along with this expansion, the site also has been redesigned.
One new feature called "Headline Watch" will cover the weekÃs news-making medical stories.
"After reading or hearing a newspaper or television report about a new treatment, medication or medical discovery, people want more details and explanations," says Dr. Brooks Edwards, medical editor, Mayo Clinic Health Oasis. "Our site will fill in the blanks. We will concentrate on covering each weekÃs top medical stories reported in the national media. Our goal is to give people all the information they need to better understand medical news and how it may affect their lives."
In providing this service, Mayo Clinic Health Oasis will draw upon the expertise of Mayo ClinicÃs 2,000 physicians and research scientists.
"Headline Watch" will be updated every weekday. Everything new that is added to Mayo Clinic Health Oasis will first appear in this section as well as on the home page so that people who use the site often can quickly find the newest information.
"ItÃs been an unintentional secret that we post new material every weekday," Dr. Edwards says. "ThatÃs because our new information appeared in different sections of the site. We have redesigned Mayo Clinic Health Oasis so that it takes only one click on "Headline Watch" to find the latest information.
Some topics to appear in August include an update on birth control pills, laparoscopic hernia repair, and an update on smoking cessation. Also in August, articles will help parents choose the right sport for their young children and understand school-borne infections.
- Allergy Assessment Tool -
The new Allergy Assessment will help people determine if they have hay fever, what they may be allergic to and what they may not be allergic to. This interactive symptoms checklist asks questions such as how often are you bothered with sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion, itchy nose or itchy eyes and when and where your symptoms flair up. At the end of this assessment you will obtain help about treatments that may provide more relief. - High Blood Pressure Quiz -
Another new interactive feature is a hypertension quiz. It is a learning tool to help people better understand high blood pressure. The multiple-choice quiz asks questions such as "Which two complications of high blood pressure have been increasing in the United States in recent years?" (The answer is heart failure and end-stage kidney failure).
- MenÃs Health Resource Center -
The new MenÃs Health Resource Center covers issues such as causes and remedies for infertility; treatment options for prostate enlargement; how aging affects sexual satisfaction; and self-examination for testicular cancer, the most common form of cancer in men aged 15-35, and the second most common in men aged 35-39.
These new features appear in a redesign of Mayo ClinicÃs award-winning site. This new design includes a mini table of contents on every screen to help users navigate the site quickly and easily. The siteÃs most popular features such as "Ask Mayo" and "Search" are one click away from any page. Also a dynamic content area on the home page will change daily to highlight other popular features such as first aid, interactive quizzes and health assessments.
"The only reason we gave Mayo Clinic Health Oasis a new look is because we want to keep the site responsive to users needs," says Dr. Edwards. "We now have more than 5,000 pages of content. With that much growth, we needed to reorganize the site to make sure people find what they are looking for, whether it is answers about fainting or fibromyalgia." - Support to other web sites -
Mayo Clinic Health Oasis also is providing health stories and features to other online services. These include U.S. News and World Report Online (www.usnews.com), beginning in September; CNN Interactive (CNN.com), which began in May; and Microsoft (home.microsoft.com), on the health channel.
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Mayo is a private group practice of medicine dedicated to providing diagnosis and treatment of patient illnesses through a systematic focus on individual patient needs. Mayo provides comprehensive hospital and outpatient services at each of its major locations ó Rochester, Minn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Scottsdale, Ariz. At each site, clinical practice is closely integrated with advanced education and research programs. Mayo also provides care through affiliated practices in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Mayo is an affirmative action and equal opportunity educator and employer. Mayo Clinic Health Information is developed by Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research.
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