Further information
We have included the following organisations because, on preliminary investigation, they may be of use to the reader. However, we do not have first-hand experience of each organisation and so cannot guarantee the organisation’s integrity. The reader must therefore exercise his or her own discretion and judgement when making further enquiries.
The British Heart Foundation
Tel: 0845 070 8070
The British Heart Foundation is the national health charity which saves thousands of lives every year through pioneering research, by providing vital information that helps people reduce their own heart health risk and caring for heart patients.
Bupa Fact Sheets
www.bupa.co.uk/fact_sheets/aortic_aneurysm
Bupa's website offers more than 1000 pages of free health information on a range of conditions, treatments and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. All the information is written by professional writers and reviewed by medical experts. Simply browse the A-Z index of fact sheets.
The Circulation Foundation
www.circulationfoundation.org.uk
Tel: 0207 304 4779
The Circulation Foundation was established in 1992 by two vascular urgeons and is the UK's only national charity dedicated to raising money for pioneering research into the cause, prevention and treatment of vascular disease.
Clinical Knowledge Summaries
Sowerby Centre for Health Informatics at Newcastle (SCHIN Ltd).
Bede House
All Saints Business Centre
Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 2ES
Tel: 0191 243 6100
A website mainly for GPS giving information for patients listed by disease plus self-help organisations.
NHS Direct
Tel: 0845 4647 (24 hours, 365 days a year)
Offers confidential health-care advice, information and referral serice. A good first port of call for any health advice.
NHS Screening
UK National Screening Committee
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Mint Wing
Centre Block G
South Wharf Road
London W2 1NY
Tel: 0207 886 6927
Includes details of the AAA screening prorgamme in various parts of the UK.
The NHS Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) Screening Programme is being gradually introduced across England in order to reduce deaths from abdominal aortic aneurysms through early detection.
For more information about the NHS AAA Screening Programme, visit http://aaa.screening.nhs.uk/
National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE)
National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE)
MidCity Place
71 High Holburn
London WC1V 6NA
Provides national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill-health. Patient information leaflets are also available.
Patient.co.uk
The aim of this website is to provide non-medical people in the UK with good quality information about health and disease. The authors do this by writing evidence based information leaflets on a wide range of medical and health topics. They also review health and illness related websites and link to many of these from the web directory included on this website. UK sites are the primary links in the web directory as they feel that residents in the UK prefer to obtain health information from UK sources. They also suggest some links to selected overseas sites.
The Vascular Society
The Royal College of Surgeons of England
35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3PE
Tel: 0207 973 0306
Vascular Societies are groups of doctors and scientists who study the vascular system (vessels for carrying blood) which are the arteries and veins. There are many specialists involved in treating vascular problems such as aneurysms, varicose veins and leg ulcers.
THE INTERNET AS A SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION
After reading this text, you may feel that you would like further information on the subject. The internet is of course an excellent place to look and there are many websites with useful information about medical disorders, related charities and support groups. For those who do not have a computer at home some bars and cafes offer facilities for accessing the internet. These are listed in the Yellow Pages under ‘Internet Bars and Cafes’ and ‘Internet Providers’. Your local library offers a similar facility and has staff to help you find the information that you need.
It should always be remembered, however, that the internet is unregulated and anyone is free to set up a website and add information to it. Many websites offer impartial advice and information that has been compiled and checked by qualified medical professionals. Some, on the other hand, are run by commercial organisations with the purpose of promoting their own products. Others still are run by pressure groups, some of which will provide carefully assessed and accurate information whereas others may be suggesting medications or treatments that are not supported by the medical and scientific community.
Unless you know the address of the website you want to visit – for example, www.familydoctor.co.uk – you may find the following guidelines useful when searching the internet for information.
SEARCH ENGINES AND OTHER SEARCHABLE SITES
Google (www.google.co.uk) is the most popular search engine used in the UK, followed by Yahoo! (http://uk.yahoo.com) and MSN (www.msn.co.uk). Also popular are the search engines provided by Internet Service Providers such as Tiscali and other sites such as the BBC site (www.bbc.co.uk).
In addition to the search engines that index the whole web, there are also medical sites with search facilities, which act almost like mini-search engines, but cover only medical topics or even a particular area of medicine. Again, it is wise to look at who is responsible for compiling the information offered to ensure that it is impartial and medically accurate. The NHS Direct site (www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk) is an example of a searchable medical site.
Links to many British medical charities can be found at the Association of Medical Research Charities’ website (www.amrc.org.uk) and at Charity Choice (www.charitychoice.co.uk).
SEARCH PHRASES
Be specific when entering a search phrase. Searching for information on ‘cancer’ will return results for many different types of cancer as well as on cancer in general. You may even find sites offering astrological information. More useful results will be returned by using search phrases such as ‘lung cancer’ and ‘treatments for lung cancer’. Both Google and Yahoo! offer an advanced search option that includes the ability to search for the exact phrase; enclosing the search phrase in quotes, that is, ‘treatments for lung cancer’, will have the same effect. Limiting a search to an exact phrase reduces the number of results returned but it is best to refine a search to an exact match only if you are not getting useful results with a normal search.
Adding ‘UK’ to your search term will bring up mainly British sites, so a good phrase might be ‘lung cancer’ UK (don’t include UK within the quotes).
WARNING
Always remember the internet is international and unregulated. It holds a wealth of valuable information but individual sites may be biased, out of date or just plain wrong. Family Doctor Publications accepts no responsibility for the content of links published in this series.
