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If you have health and apothecary questions that you don't trust Google with, maybe we can help. The website of the Mercyhurst University libraries has many subscription database resources, some covering broad subjects and some covering very specific subjects.
One of the subjects specific databases that you may not have heard of before is UpToDate. UpToDate is a Health Sciences database that is not only usable for research purposes but is also a resource that is used by real professionals in the real world. All Mercyhurst campuses can benefit; it'll be most useful to students and programs like Mercyhurst Northeast Nursing, Public Health, Health Sciences, pre-health professions, health studies, physical therapy, and others. It's an evidence-based clinical decision support resource that can help healthcare professionals make point-of-care decisions. Thus, if you want to work in Health Professions, learning how to use a database like UpToDate may help prepare you for your career.
But even if you're not, it's still a high-quality research source for health information. For example, let's try searching for the name of a drug, since pharmaceutical information is one of the things that UpToDate is very good at. In this case, search results are on the left, and the actual drug information is on the right. Suppose I want to see this article; if you open an article, you'll find that it's written in a language meant for medical professionals. But it also means that the information you're looking at is more complete and authoritative than something that will be meant for a general audience.
You can also browse content using the content menu. If you go to the drug information option, you can actually browse lists of different kinds of pharmaceutical drugs. For example, here I've clicked on pediatric drug information, and it's giving me an alphabetical list of drugs with information on administering them to children. You can also use the contents menu to browse topics by going to topics by specialty, like the drugs. These are divided into two broad categories, and this is a way for you to be able to find information without necessarily knowing what you want to look for, or can help you come up with ideas for research topics.
If you're looking for information that's written in a more accessible manner, you can look under patient education to get some resources that are meant for patient use. For example, here's a patient education article about high-fiber diets. The calculators portion of the website is a list of assessment tools; these are probably too esoteric for the average user, although you might find them interesting.
The drug interactions section of the website is very unique. This opens Lexicomp drug interactions, and it does what it sounds like it does. You can enter the names of different medicines that a patient might take, and the database will let you know if there's any concerns to be had about the combination of those drugs. For instance, when combining Adderall and Effexor, there could be a problem, so monitoring therapy is recommended.
If you want to use UpToDate in your research, that's great, since it's meant for a clinical setting; there are no citation tools whatsoever. But the articles do have the title, author, and date information that you would need to build the citation according to your citation manual. But do keep in mind that using UpToDate is not a replacement for visiting a real healthcare professional, although perhaps it could help you become one someday.
Those are the basics about UpToDate, but if you have any more questions, you can contact us through our website at library. [Music]