Skeletal Homeostatic Imbalances: Websites

Medical Encyclopedia from Medline Plus - An extensive resource of basic information from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Mayo Clinic: Diseases and Conditions - Encyclopedic information on hundreds of conditions from the Mayo Clinic, a top-ranked health care and research center.

When searching for information on the Internet, it's important to remember that anyone can post anything. Always evaluate websites critically. Follow the five W's:

• Who wrote the article? What are their credentials, and are they sponsored by someone?
• What relevance does the article have to your research question?
• When was the article published? Is it out of date?
• Where does their information come from? Do they provide sources?
• Why was this site created? What seems to be its purpose?

Get more out of Google with a few tricks:

• Use AND between keywords to search them together (i.e. osteoarthritis AND arthritis), and OR between them to substitute one for the other (i.e. lcpd OR perthes).
• Use the minus sign - to exclude a term (i.e. arthritis -rheumatoid).
• Search a specific domain using site: followed by the domain after your keyword. For instance, osteosarcoma site:.edu will provide results only from academic institutions.

For more, check out Google's own guide to refining searches.

OrthoInfo - Information about bone health from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

National Organization for Rare Disorders: Database - A-Z index of rare diseases. You'll find a few of your choices in it!

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Diseases and Conditions - Sorted A-Z. From the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Health.gov - From the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Search at the top right.

Medline Plus - Medline's general, searchable website.

Innerbody Research: Explore Human Anatomy - Interactive guides to anatomy and physiology, created by numerous medical experts.

Arthritis Foundation: Osteoarthritis - Information from an organization focused on support for people with arthritis.

International Osteoporosis Foundation: About Osteoporosis - The world's largest non-governmental organization for osteoporosis.

American Cancer Society: About Osteosarcoma - Focus on this particular type of bone tumor.