Citation
Rose, P.M. (2002), "MEDLINEplus Interactive Health Tutorials", Online Information Review, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 355-356. https://doi.org/10.1108/oir.2002.26.5.355.9
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Offered on the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) MEDLINEplus Web site, these tutorials are a very affordable commercial product known as X‐Plain, designed and developed by the Patient Education Institute, a privately‐held company founded in 1995.
At the time of this review there are 88 tutorials organised into four major groups: Diseases and Conditions, Tests and Diagnostic Procedures, Surgery and Treatment Procedures, and Prevention and Wellness, along with four additional tutorials in Spanish. Users can also access the tutorials by going through NLM’s Health Topics page <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html>, where an extensive alphabetical list (which includes useful see references) leads to simple text information pages with resource links.
Activating a tutorial opens a second browser window used to run each tutorial chosen. The opening screen offers two choices: Go to Module or Print Module (a printed reference summary, which opens an additional browser window). The Flash plug‐in (Version 4.0 or higher) is required for the interactive portion, and Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to view and/or print the reference summary in pdf format. Users are given an opportunity to download the required software if the program is not detected on their computer.
Only the printed summary, provided in a three‐columns‐per‐page format, includes a disclaimer stating that the information is not to be used as a substitute for medical treatment and that it may be dated. Users might thus assume that the interactive portion is more current, but there is nothing to confirm this. Strangely, the interactive modules display a copyright date of 2000, while the printed summaries show a copyright date of 1995‐2001.
Animated graphics are controlled in a way similar to a PowerPoint presentation by clicking right and left arrows to move forward or back. Each opening screen offers users a redundant instruction button or a Start Module button, which then briefly displays instructions. Users control the speed and pace to view and, if they choose, hear the information. Impatient users can click the right arrow to interrupt the audio and move to the next screen or mute the audio. The text and audio format is useful for both vision‐ and hearing‐impaired users, although neither the NLM site nor the tutorials are fully W3C‐accessible.
Information is presented in very simple language appropriate for consumer audiences by pleasant male and female voices, with animated graphics and questions at key points for review. Persistent buttons and a module‐specific index control the presentation at every point, including Quit and Comments (for feedback to NLM) buttons. The pages load rather slowly even after muting the audio as advised, a fact that may discourage those with slower computers. Each module topic title displays separately on its own screen (slow, but useful for the sight‐impaired), necessitating clicking the right arrow again to continue the program.
The information content appears fairly reliable, although source references are not provided. The company Web site claims that the information is up‐to‐date and correct, and one assumes that NLM would not use the tutorials if they did not agree. However, there is room for improvement. For example, the basic diabetes tutorial fails to define clearly the normal range for blood sugar levels, even though the program discusses it at several points. The basic tutorial format, which outlines the condition, symptoms, genetics, anatomy, treatment and complications (or the appropriate procedural information), is clearly labelled, presented and logical for the target audience.
Although content and presentation could be improved, this unique resource is highly recommended for public and health sciences libraries with consumer health collections. There are a few other resources to consider, but they do not fill this niche. Tutorialfind has a page of health and fitness tutorial links <http://www.tutorialfind.com/tutorials/healthfitness/> that are geared more to everyday health issues like hangovers, diarrhoea and nosebleeds. Chatterbee’s Homework Help Center, geared to a K‐12 audience but nevertheless useful to adults, links to the NLM tutorials as well as five other sites on their Instant In‐Class Presentations page <http://chatterbeeshomework. homestead.com/inclass_present.html>. The University of Virginia School of Nursing also provides a page of tutorial resources, which includes the NLM site (with the caveat that they are not evaluated or monitored) at <http://faculty. virginia.edu/sfarrell/tami/tutorials/tutoriallinks.htm>
This review was first published in Reference Reviews Volume 16 Number 5 2002.