MEDLINE is the database that indexes over 5,000 clinical medical, nursing and dental journals back to 1966. It is produced by The National Library of Medicine. Medline is available in many formats including Medline Ovid and PubMed. Even MDConsult offers a searchable version of Medline. MEDLINE is the standard place to begin researching clinical medical topics for physicians and health professionals. Many patients today also use MEDLINE because it is so freely available.
MedlinePlus is the consumer health side of The National Library of Medicine (NLM). This is a wonderful website that indexes and makes available patient education and consumer health information to anyone with internet access. This is an excellent place to start researching a health topic because all of the sites included have passed rigorous quality tests. None of the sites included will try to sell you anything, or ask for personal information. Their main objective is to provide qood, quality information with the patient's best interests at heart.
For more information, see the following Fact Sheets from The National Library of Medicine :
MEDLINE Fact Sheet
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medline.html
MedlinePlus Fact Sheet
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/medlineplus.html
