Health

Facts and Background Information
Selected print and electronic encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc.
Books
Locate items in the library catalog and other libraries.
Articles
Use indexes to search for articles in journals, proceedings, etc.
Websites
Recommended academic, professional, and learned societies sites, and more.
Contact a Librarian

Below are some major, frequently used sources for the study of health in general, as well as public health and community health.

Please consult with a reference librarian for directions to more sources on your topic. Internet resources require a Tufts I.D. number for off-campus access (authorized users statement).

Facts and Background Information     [back to top]

Abbreviations

MASA: Medical Acronyms, Symbols & Abbreviations. 1988.
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R123 .H26 1988]

Medical Abbreviations & Eponyms. 1997.
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R123 .S569 1997]

Classification of Diseases

ICD-9-CD: The International Classification of Diseases. 9th revision, Clinical Modification, Color Coded, 1996.
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RB115 .I343 1996b]
Volume 1: Diseases, Tabular List; Volume 2: Alphabetic List.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV 1994
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC455.2 .C4D54 1994]

Dictionaries

The AIDS Dictionary 1998
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC607 .A2W383 1998]

The Cambridge Historical Dictionary of Disease 2003

Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference 1999
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RS51 .U65]

A Dictionary of Epidemiology 2001
[PRINT. Tisch Reference. RA651 .D553 2001]

Dictionary of Medical Syndromes 1997
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC69 .M33 1997]

Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary 2001
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R121 .D73]

The Inverted Medical Dictionary: A Method of Finding Medical Terms Quickly 1976
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R121 .R54]

The Oxford Companion to Medicine 1986
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R121 .O88 1986]

Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science and Medicine 1998
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC1206 .O94 1998]

Physicians’ Desk Reference: PDR 2003
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RS75 .P5 2003]
Guide to drug interactions, side effects, indications, contraindications.

Physicians' Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines 1998
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RS75 .P367]

Physicians’ Desk Reference for Nonprescription Drugs 2002
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RM671 .Al P48 2002]
Information on 700 over the counter self care aids.

Stedman’s Medical Dictionary 2000
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R121 .S8 2000]

Directories

American Hospital Association Guide to the Health Care Field 2002
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA977 .A1 A46]

Graduate Medical Education Directory 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R840 .D56]

Health Care Almanac & Yearbook 1997
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA421 .H413]

International Handbook of Medical Education 1994
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R737 .I54 1994]

Peterson's Job Opportunities in Health Care 2000
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R690 .P45]

Peterson's U. S. & Canadian Medical Schools 1997-
[PRINT. Tisch Reference R735 .A4 P45]

Plunkett's Health Care Industry Almanac 2003
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA410.53 .P56 2003]

Encyclopedias

Use encyclopedias to get background information or a general introduction to a topic. They can also be used to find more extended definitions of technical terms than dictionaries have.

The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine 1989
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .A2 A52 1989]

Encyclopedia of AIDS 1998
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA644 .A25E5276 1998]

Encyclopedia of Cancer 2002
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC262 .E558 2002]

Encyclopedia of Human Nutrition
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QP141. E526 1999]

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences
A reference work integrating current theory and practice of all basic and applied aspects of the life sciences, with an emphasis on cell and molecular biology.

The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RS164 .C4437 1996]

Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine 1991
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RZ433 .M87 1991

Magill’s Medical Guide: Health and Illness 2002
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC41 .M34 2002]

The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs & Biologicals 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RS51 .M4 1996]

The Oxford Medical Companion 1994
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC41 .O84 1994]

The Wellness Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Family Resource For Safeguarding Health and Preventing Illness 1991
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA776 .W436 1991]

Guides and Handbooks

Many of the guides listed here are intended for persons without medical or scientific background. They are an excellent way of finding basic medical and health information.

American Medical Association Family Medical Guide 1994
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .A543 1994]

The Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Complete Home Guide to Mental Health 1992
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC460 .C59 1992]

Complete Home Medical Guide/The Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons 1985
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .C716 1985]

Consumer Health USA: Essential Information From the Federal Health Network 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .C725 1995]

The Consumer Health Information Source Book 1998
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA776.Z99 R43 1998]

CRC Desk Reference for Nutrition
[PRINT. Tisch Reference QP141 .B523 1998]
Covers the health and science aspects of nutrition.

Diet & Nutrition Sourcebook: Basic Information About Nutrition Including the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, The Food Guide Pyramid, and Their Application in Daily Diet 1999
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA784 .D534 1999]

Food Values of Portions Commonly Used
[PRINT. Tisch Reference TX551.B64 1994]
Offers nutritional values of foods including popular brands.

The Gay Men's Wellness Guide 1997
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC451.4 .G39P45]

Mayo Clinic Family Health Book 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .M473 1996]

The New Our Bodies, Ourselves 1992
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA778 .N67]

The PDR Family Guide to Nutrition and Health 1995
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA784 .P37 1995]

The Patient’s Desk Reference: Where to find Answers to Medical Questions 1994
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .F865 1994]

Handbook of Hazardous Materials 1993
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA1211 .H28 1993]

Handbook of Human Toxicology 1997
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA12ll .H286 1997]

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 1999
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC55 .M4]

The Merck Manual of Medical Information 1997
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RC81 .M535 1997]

Poisoning & Toxicology Handbook 1996-97
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA1211 .P6 1995b]

Statistics

Global Health Statistics: A Compendium of Incidence, Prevalence, and Mortality Estimates for Over 200 Conditions 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA407 .M87 1996]

Health, United States. U. S. Dept. of Health Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, 2002
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA407.3 .U57a]

Statistical Record of Health & Medicine 1998
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA407.3 .S73]

World Health Statistics Annual = Annuaire de Statistiques Sanitaires Mondiales 1996
[PRINT. Tisch Reference RA651 .A485 1996]

Find Books     [back to top]

To locate books in the Tufts Libraries, use the library catalog (how to use). You can search for a title, an author (last name first), or a subject. You can also do a keyword search, connecting search terms with and, or, and not. Tisch Library uses the Library of Congress classification system. The classification system brings similar books together on the shelves, which facilitates browsing. Books on various aspects of health and medicine can be found in several different classifications, but most will be found in the R classification.

Many of the books in the library catalog on health and medicine are located in the Health Sciences or Veterinary libraries rather than in Tisch. These libraries use the National Library of Medicine classification system instead of Library of Congress, and books in these libraries will have call numbers that begin with W. Pay special attention to the location of any book whose call number begins with W. You may go to these libraries and check out circulating books or you may request that they be sent here via Document Delivery.

If you have difficulty locating books using subjects, please consult a reference librarian, as subject headings can be difficult to use. Also try doing a keyword search instead.

To find a book in Tisch that you have located in the catalog, note both the location and the call number at the bottom of the catalog record and consult a plan (see "Floor Plans") of the library or ask at the reference desk.

To locate books in other Boston Library Consortium libraries use the Boston Library Consortium Catalogs (how to use). You can request to borrow books directly from this catalog or you can apply for a consortium borrowing card at the Tisch circulation desk and go to any of these libraries.

To locate books in many libraries throughout the world, use WorldCat (how to use).

To determine if a book is available to purchase or is still in print, use Books in Print, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.com.

Find Articles     [back to top]

To locate articles or research papers within periodicals and journals, it is necessary to use specialized databases known as indexing services. Some of these databases are broad in scope and others cover more specialized subjects. The ones listed here are particularly useful for finding health and medical related information. Like the library catalog, most of them can be searched by author, title, subject, or keyword. As well as citations to papers, they may also have abstracts or in some cases direct links to the full text of the papers. If they do not have a link to a web version of the paper, search for the title of the periodical in the Tufts library catalog to determine if we have a copy.

Most periodicals held by Tufts are listed in the library catalog. Holdings in all formats are unified in one record, and most entries for journals held in electronic format contain a hyperlink to the source; searching in the web-based catalog enables one to follow these links directly. A supplementary list of electronic journals is on the Tisch homepage under Electronic Journals. Some health related journals might be in the Hirsh Health Sciences Library rather than in Tisch. If an electronic version of these journals is not available, you may request a photocopy of an article through the Document Delivery service, or you may go to the Hirsh Health Sciences Library. Your Tufts ID card will allow you to use the library.

NOTE: In the listing below, Evaluated MEDLINE, MEDLINE, and PubMed are different search engines searching the same database. Each one has different features. Choose the one that works best for you. When doing research, it is not necessary to search in more than one of these sites.

Indexes

AARP AgeLine 1978- How To Use
Provides bibliographic references and original abstracts for materials related to aging and middle age, from an interdisciplinary perspective of psychology, economics, sociology, gerontology, public policy, business, health and health care services, and consumer issues.

Biological Abstracts. BIOSIS.
Please see BIOSIS Previews.

BIOSIS Previews 1980- How To Use
A comprehensive life sciences database, incorporating Biological Abstracts.

CINAHL 1983- How To Use
Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature in English.

Current Contents Connect 2001- How To Use
A current awareness database with a multidisciplinary focus, covering over 8,000 of the world's scholarly journals grouped into the following broad disciplinary areas: Agriculture, Biology, & Environmental Sciences; Art & Humanities; Clinical Medicine; Engineering, Computing & Technology; Life Sciences; Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences; Social & Behavioral Sciences. Also included is access to ISI Current Web Contents.

EBM (Evidence Based Medicine Review) - Best Evidence 1991-
Reviews methodologically sound studies for clinical relevance and provides a commentary on its value for clinical practice.

EBM (Evidence Based Medicine Review) - Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1999-
Systematic reviews of the effect of health care.

Evaluated MEDLINE
MEDLINE enhanced with a specially designed search engine and added notations.

Health and Safety Science Abstracts 1981- How To Use
Comprehensive, timely survey of recent work relating to public health, safety and industrial hygiene.

Health Reference Center Academic 1993- How To Use
Articles on fitness, nutrition, public health, HMOs, etc.

HealthSTAR 1975- How To Use
Health administration, services, technology, and research.

ISI Web of Knowledge How To Use
ISI Web of Knowledge supports cross-content searching and provides integrated access to: ISI Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Science Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Index; ISI Current Contents Connect; ISI Chemistry: ISI Proceedings, Derwent Innovations Index (patents); ISI Journal Citation Reports, and ISI Essential Science Indicators.

LexisNexis How To Use
Includes articles from major American newspapers and regional papers, statistics, company financial information, country and state profiles, and medical information. Major source for federal case law and statutes, the U.S. Code, law reviews, and state legal research.

MDX-Health 1988- How To Use
Health articles written for the general public.

MEDLINE. Ovid, 1966- Old Medline, 1951-1965. How To Use
Worldwide coverage of the biomedical literature. MEDLINE provides access to the bibliographic database of the National Library of Medicine. It is the most complete medical database available.

OT Search (formerly OT BibSys) 1890-
[Login name=tisch; Password=bsot]
A bibliographic database covering the literature of occupational therapy and related subject areas, such as rehabilitation, education, psychiatry or psychology, and health care delivery or administration.

PILOTS
The PILOTS (Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress ) bibliographic database, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, includes citations to literature on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health sequelae of traumatic events, without disciplinary, linguistic, or geographical limitations, and offers both current and retrospective coverage.

PsycINFO 1967- How To Use
Worldwide scholarly coverage of literature in psychology.

PubMed 1966-
MEDLINE for the general public.

Web of Science 1974- How To Use
Provides access to the ISI citation databases: Science Citation Index Expanded (1945-), Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-). Updated weekly. (See also ISI Web of Knowledge.)

Electronic journals

Professional societies and commercial publishers often offer all of their web journal titles through a common interface. The ones below have health journals but may also have other journals in them. All of them have search engines that allow you to search for articles like the indexes listed above. Be aware, though, that you are searching through only the publications of a particular publisher or supplier, not all of the relevant literature.

Annual Reviews in the Biomedical Sciences
Eighteen annual review titles covering major areas in the biomedical sciences. Search individual titles or across the suite of titles.

Ovid How To Use
The Tufts collection of Ovid journals is primarily biomedical in nature. You can search in any of the Ovid databases for citations to the full-text articles in this collection. Coverage is from 1996 to present.

ScienceDirect. Elsevier.
A database of over 1,700 journal titles covering the life, physical, technical and social sciences. Titles start with the initial volume of publication; all titles have tables of contents and abstracts, and most have full text articles. Tufts has access to approximately 800 titles from 1995 to date. The titles formerly published by Academic Press commence with 1993. Green boxes indicate subscribed titles; white boxes are for non-subscribed titles. Please note: ScienceDirect no longer provides access to non-subscribed titles. Articles from non-subscribed titles must be obtained from Tisch Document Delivery or purchased directly from ScienceDirect.

Wiley InterScience
Provides full-text access to 300+ journals published by John Wiley & Sons. Subjects covered are: Business, Finance & Management, Chemistry, Computer Science, Earth Science, Education, Engineering, Law, Life & Medical Science, Mathematics & Statistics, Physics and Psychology. Online publication date varies by title but most start with 1997.

Websites     [back to top]

Abledata
A national database of information on assistive technology and rehabilitation equipment available from domestic and international sources. Produced by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Dept. of Education.

Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR)
Support and reports on research designed to improve the quality of health care. Includes Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's HCUPNet, a tool for tracking and comparing statistics on hospitals at the national level.

American Dietetic Association

American Occupational Therapy Foundation
Homepage of the AOTF, with links to OT scholarship information, the Wilma L. West Library, The Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, and AOTF activities and news.

American Public Health Association
A resource for public health information, policies, and publications.

Ancient Medicine/Medicina Antiqua

AOTA Home Page
Homepage of the American Occupational Therapy Association, featuring occupational therapy resources for students, practitioners, and consumers.

ATSDR's Haz Dat Database (ATSDR's Hazardous Substance Release Effects Database.)
Provides information on the release of hazardous substances and effects on human populations.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Primary focus is disease control, injury, and disability as they relate to health and quality of life.

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Department of Health and Human Services
HHS Agencies reports, policies, and publications. Includes Healthfinder(TM) search engine for retrieving health information.

Food and Drug Administration Home Page

International Food Information Council

Mayer, Jean - Bibliography
A comprehensive list of publications, exclusive of individual newspaper columns, by the nutritionist scholar, educator, and tenth president of Tufts University, Dr. Jean Mayer.

MedHist
A gateway to internet resources on the history of medicine and allied sciences developed and managed by the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine.

POPLINE - Population Information Online
Worldwide coverage of population, family planning and related health issues.

Selected History of Medicine Sites

TOXNET
A search interface for accessing a group of databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals and related topics, including TOXLINE, Toxic Releases Inventory, Hazardous Substances Databank, and others.

Tufts Health Sciences Library Nutrition Resources

Tufts University Nutrition Navigator
A rating guide to nutrition websites, presented by the Center on Nutrition Communication, School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center

Visible Human Project

World Health Organization WWW Home Page

Yahoo - Health

Contact a Librarian     [back to top]

Miriam Allman. Contact for questions about library collections.
Regina Raboin. Contact for reference questions and instruction requests for science-related aspects of health and community health.
Karen Vagts. Contact for reference questions and instruction requests for engineering-related aspects of health.

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