Category: Each site is classified into one of approximately 25 categories. For example, some sites will appear under the category of alternative medicine, while others will appear under the category of disabilities. Look for the category that most closely matches your interests or condition.

Name: Here you'll find the name of the site. For example: Cancer Guide, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or Med Web.

Address: Even web sites have addresses? You'll find a simple-to-access World Wide Web address such as http://www.infonet.welch.jhu.edu/advocacy.html, which provides telephone numbers of thousands of patient advocacy groups. Type in the Web site address or URL, hit Enter and you'll be there in a matter of seconds. And don't forget: If you like the site, add it to your hotlist.

Sponsor: This section refers to the person or organization that sponsors or hosts the site. In some cases, the Web site development firm that designed the site will be listed as its sponsor. If you want to communicate with the sponsor, send an e-mail message or fax--or make a quick telephone call--to the organization or individual listed under additional contact information.

Description: This section provides a quick overview of the site such as : The National Library of Medicine site offers you access to its databases as well as those of the National Institutes of Health. Also included are reports, image libraries, historical information, and staff contact information.

Audience: This section describes the type of person who would benefit most from the site. For example: healthcare consumers, government officials, healthcare professionals, physicians.

Purpose: Look here for the site's mission or reason for being. For example: To provide individuals with disabilities with more than 100 links to resources on issues such as legal advice, education, and computer software and hardware.

Content: Here you'll find the key elements or features of the site such as a description of topics covered, file libraries, searchable databases, chat rooms, product and service descriptions, articles and reports, surveys, free offers, graphics, and video and sound clips. For example: If you're child is tired of CD-ROM's, the multimedia medical tutorials offered by the University of Virginia's Children's Medical Center provides an alternative with its colorful explanations of topics such as cerebral palsy, asthma, and diabetes. (Interested in going there? The address is: http://galen.med.virginia.edu/~smb4v/tutorial.html)

Most intriguing feature: Here's the most accessible, intriguing or practical feature of the site. Example: PharmInfoNet offers a database which allows you to access information about drugs, their trade and generic names, manufacturers, treatment class, indications, chemical structures, and reviews from Medical Science Bulletin. Address: http://pharminfo.com/pin-hp.html

Cautions about access: Linger here if you're interested in knowing about potholes and pitfalls on the site, as well as how you should use or accept the information.

Links: You'll find other places where you can travel to the site to find information. There's tremendous diversity here. Some highly valuable but topic-focused sites offer no links, while other sites are nothing but links. In most cases, however, you'll find at least three links.

Ratings: You'll find ratings (discussed below) in categories such as content, access, navigation, design, links, and interactivity.

Additional contact information: Phone, fax or e-mail the person listed if you want more information on the site and where it's headed.

Each site also is evaluated with from one to five globes according to the following criteria:

Overall: What's the overall value of the site to those who visit it? How well does the site communicate information and increase knowledge?

Content: Is the content practical, clear, specific, accurate, and authoritative? Is it useful and relevant to those who visit the site? Is the information unique, or could it be obtained from a variety of other offline sources, including books, magazines, television, or videos? Does the site offer features that invite you to come back again and again?

Access: How quickly does the home page load up? One estimate lists less than 10 seconds as superior: 10-29 seconds as excellent; 30-59 seconds as good; 1 to 1.5 minutes as average; and 1.5+ minutes as poor. Plus, is it relatively easy to enter the site, or are you stymied by error or high traffic messages?

Design: Are you able to follow a logical sequence of links to reach underlying pages on the site? Is it easy to move back and forth? How well are the pages of the site laid out? What's the underlying concept of the site? Does an entertaining, provocative or engaging site theme or character help to sustain interest and attention?

Graphics: Are the graphics interesting, creative and relevant to the text? Or, do the graphics intrude upon or distract from the copy or cause problems?

Navigation: How effective is the site in educating you about links on the site? Do you know where you can go on the site--and how to get there? Or, do you tend to become confused when you try to move from one place to another?

Links: How effective is the site in leading you to other World Wide Web links or resources related to the purpose of the site? Are the links valuable? Are there enough of them? Are they annotated?

Interactivity: What opportunities does the site offer for involvement and participation through games, contests, surveys, registration, shopping, or tracking of healthcare information? How effective is the site in using forms to capture information from visitors?

A Word of Caution about Access to These Ratings-- With the Web changing daily and most of these Best of the Net sites adding new content, features and interactivity daily, weekly or monthly, the Sites will be different when you visit them. Most of them will have more information, more features, better interactivity and some may even have three dimensional virtual reality. The print reviews and ratings, although slightly outdated, are a starting point for your Web adventures. They will also be a time and money saver.

Though the wonders of the Web you can find the most updated healthcare, business, and financial reviews here at Greatest Hits. Our database of ratings and reviews is growing daily. We welcome your site recommendations for future editions of these books and Greatest Hits. We are evolving to meet your needs. Meet you in cyberspace.

Douglas Goldstein
Joyce Flory, Ph.D.