To find dependable information, follow these tips:   

• Avoid general search engines such as Yahoo! or Google, which often yield excessive or questionable information.
• Start at respected general-health sites.  The best is MEDLINEplus (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/), the National Library of Medicine's consumer-health site.  It has numerous tools--including a medical encyclopedia and a drug-reference guide--produced by reliable government or nonprofit groups.  Other good starting points: Healthweb (www.healthweb.org), which has links to sites chosen by medical librarians; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov) which has information about public-health issues, including bioterrorism.
• For more detailed information, look for a reliable, noncommercial organization that specializes in your particular concern. MEDLINEplus has a comprehensive list of such organizations, as does the Directory of Health Organizations (dirline.nlm.nih.gov).
• Other reliable sites that can get you started include Oncolink (www.oncolink.upenn.edu) for cancer information; Clinical-Trials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) for ongoing trials; and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (www.fda.gov/cder/drug) for latest information on new drugs and recently identified risks.