Sources for specifically medical information. For food & nutrition sources go here
These are the sources we consider reliable. Note: We deliberately avoid health blogs, influencer posts, forums, supplement-company sites, and articles that promise miracle cures. MedlinePlus advises checking who funds the content, looking for ads, and considering whether commercial interests might influence the information.
Source |
Best for |
Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
Patient-friendly overviews of conditions, symptoms, tests, medicines |
Run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, part of NIH; designed for patients and families. |
|
Symptoms, conditions, treatments, when to seek help |
Clear, practical health guidance from the NHS. |
|
Detailed condition explanations |
Uses external authors, peer reviewers, pharmacologist review, physician editors and final editorial review. |
|
Plain-English condition and treatment summaries |
Uses a structured process including medical review, copy editing, annotation and publishing. |
|
Clear patient education on symptoms, conditions and procedures |
Good for education, though it explicitly says it does not replace diagnosis or treatment from a doctor. |
Guidelines and evidence-based medicine
Source |
Best for |
Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
UK clinical guidance, treatment pathways, medicines, public health |
NICE produces evidence-based recommendations using independent committees and stakeholder consultation. |
|
Systematic reviews of treatments and interventions |
Cochrane reviews are internationally recognised as a high standard in evidence-based healthcare. |
|
Global public health, diseases, vaccines, outbreaks, policy |
Useful for global health context and international guidance. |
|
Infectious disease, vaccination, travel health, prevention |
Strong for public health, disease prevention and outbreak-related information. |
|
Clinical decision support for professionals |
Updated daily using evidence-based methodology and expert opinion. |
|
Professional-level clinical summaries |
Widely used by clinicians; evidence-based, but often subscription-only. |
|
Professional evidence-based decision support |
Built around evidence-based clinical decision support and shared decision-making. |
Medicines, side effects and drug safety
Source |
Best for |
Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
UK medicine doses, prescribing, cautions, interactions |
Core UK medicines reference for prescribing and safe medicine use. |
|
UK patient leaflets and official product information |
Contains regulated prescribing and patient information for licensed medicines. |
|
UK drug safety alerts and warnings |
Official UK regulator updates on medicines and devices. |
|
Reporting side effects or device incidents |
Official UK system for reporting suspected side effects and medical device problems. |
|
U.S. drug approvals, safety, shortages, labels |
Official U.S. drug regulator; includes FDA-approved prescription, generic and OTC drug information. |
|
Official U.S. medicine labels |
Provides current drug labelling submitted to FDA and published by the National Library of Medicine. |
|
EU medicine assessments and product information |
Official EU agency for evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines. |
Research databases
Source |
Best for |
Why we’d trust it |
|---|---|---|
Searching biomedical research papers |
Contains more than 40 million biomedical citations and abstracts. |
|
Free full-text research papers |
Free NIH/NLM archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. |
|
Registered clinical trials and trial results |
Database of clinical research studies and results, run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. |
|
Searching guidelines, reviews and clinical evidence |
Clinical search engine designed to help find high-quality evidence. |
|
Systematic reviews and evidence mapping |
Useful for finding and linking evidence-based health information across languages. |
Major peer-reviewed medical journals
These are useful, but I’d treat single studies cautiously. A systematic review, guideline, or consensus statement is usually stronger than one paper.
Source |
Best for |
|---|---|
Medical research, reviews, health policy, clinical education. |
|
Major clinical trials, reviews and editorial content. |
|
Global health, clinical research, public health and major reviews. |
|
General and specialty medical research. |
Specialist sources to also consider reliable
Area |
Sources |
|---|---|
Cancer |
|
Diabetes |
|
Mental health |
|
General public health |
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