Website of the Week – PDR Health

Art Chimes | Washington, DC
31 December 2009

Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations.



The global pharmaceutical industry has developed a vast medicine cabinet full of drugs that save lives and keep us healthy. But there are so many that it's often hard to keep them straight. For years, doctors have consulted a book called the Physicians' Desk Reference, or PDR, as a trusted guide to these medications, and now the publisher has adapted that go-to source for consumers online.

"PDRHealth.com is a consumer website that provides a trusted source of medical information, with a particular focus on pharmaceutical information," says Dr. Edward Fotsch, who heads the company behind PDRHealth.com.

It's a website where you can get authoritative information about prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines and supplements, as well as reference material on diseases and other medical conditions, surgery, and interactive tools to help you learn more about your options.

"Those are tools that we provide so that consumers can educate themselves, either to begin to start to get a sense of, perhaps, what kind of illness or malady they may have, and also so that they can sometimes get their arms around the fact that there's nothing terribly wrong with them in the first place," says Fotsch.

PDRHealth.com is only a couple of years old, but already they are looking forward to integrating the drug information that's on the site with electronic medical records.

"A key aspect of that personal health record is a list of consumers' medications, and it's our goal to be the source of information that you'll be able to click through on those lists of medications and get the kind of quality information that PDR provides."

An authoritative source of information about medicines and medical conditions at PDRHealth.com, or get the link from our site, VOAnews.com.