HEALTH
REPORT -National Library of Medicine
By Jerilyn Watson
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Every year, people from all over the world get information
from the United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.
The library is part of the National Institutes of Health. It is the
world's largest center of medical information. Doctors, scientists,
teachers and historians use the library. So do people who just want
to know more about health and sickness.
Thousands of people visit the Library near Washington,
D.C. Others get information by computer. For example, people can get
health information from a National Library service called Medline Plus.
This service cannot identify or advise about individual cases of disorders.
But it provides general knowledge about more than six-hundred-fifty
diseases and conditions.
A Medline Plus dictionary includes descriptions
of medical words. For example, you might hear that someone has had an
appendectomy(阑尾切除术).
In the medical dictionary, you can learn that the person has had an
operation to remove a part of the intestine(肠)called
the appendix(阑尾).
Drug information on the site describes medicines.
Suppose you want to know the possible effects of taking the pain-killer
aspirin. You can check a long list of drug descriptions. You can get
Medline Plus services through the National Library of Medicine's Web
Site, w-w-w dot n-l-m dot n-i-h dot g-o-v. Information appears in English
and Spanish.
The Library also offers a Web site especially for
older adults and their families. It is called NIH Senior Health, found
at w-w-w dot n-i-h-s-e-n-i-o-r-h-e-a-l-t-h dot g-o-v. The National Library
created the site with the National Institute on Aging. The site makes
it possible for people to find current information from National Institute
of Health centers. For example, older people can learn the latest news
about the treatment of heart disease or osteoporosis(骨质疏松症),
a bone disorder.
The site designers developed NIH Senior Health from
Institute on Aging studies about changes in the thinking abilities of
older people. These include understanding, learning, memory and ability
to see. Because of these changes, the site contains print that can be
made bigger and sharper. Information has been kept short. And a "talking"
operation can speak the words.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written
by Jerilyn Watson.
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