Toward a more informed patient : bridging health care information through an interactive communication portal

The National Library of Medicine spearheads several consumer health initiatives, such as MedlinePlus, NIH Senior Health, and ClinicalTrials.gov, designed to get medical information directly into the hands of patients [4-6]. Anecdotal feedback on the integrated lab links-collected from reports of clinical team members, patient responses during MHAV focus groups, and comments from other MHAV team members-has thus far been highly positive; both patients and clinicians have expressed enthusiastic appreciation for the health information materials.