Helpful hints

What to look for

Some questions to ask when reading medical research:

• Was it a randomized controlled trial? One group receives the new therapy, a control group receives standard treatment or placebo; subjects are randomly assigned.

• Is the study double-blind? Neither patients nor researchers know who is in which group.

• Was there a large sample size? The number of subjects.

• Were subjects followed for a long time?

Source: patientinform.org

Sorting the data

Here are some sites that help interpret the latest medical studies on:

TOPIC: Children's Health

SITE: www.kidshealth.org

COMMENT: Site sponsored by the Nemours Foundation; doctors review research on pediatric health and behavioral issues.

TOPIC: Alzheimer's disease

SITE: www.alzheimers.org

COMMENT: Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center of the NIH; offers summaries and commentary on new research from National Institute on Aging experts.

TOPIC: Cancer

SITE: www.plwc.org

COMMENT: Consumer site of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists; includes reports on latest research from annual medical meeting and online "Ask the Expert" chats.

TOPIC: Multiple sclerosis

SITE: www.nmss.org

COMMENT: National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports on latest research studies and offers expert interpretations of findings.

TOPIC: General family health

SITE: www.familydoctor.org

COMMENT: American Academy of Family Physicians' patient site includes summaries of research articles by physician authors.

TOPIC: Complementary and alternative medicine

SITE: nccam.nih.gov/health

COMMENT: Federally funded National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine funds research and provides guidelines for evaluating whether to pursue treatments based on studies.

— The Wall Street Journal