Healthwise helps you make better health decisions.

About Healthwise

Healthwise is a nonprofit organization founded in 1975 with the mission to help people make better health decisions. More than 90 million times a year people like you use Healthwise^® information to take an active role in their health.

The best formula for making health decisions is to combine the most reliable medical facts with your personal feelings. Put more simply: Medical Information + Your Information = Better Health Decisions.

Your decisions influence your overall well-being as well as the quality and cost of your care. By taking an active role in your health, you are likely to be happier with the care you receive and the results you achieve.

Read these Healthwise stories to see how Healthwise helps people make better health decisions.

	Patricia used the Healthwise Knowledgebase to save her own life. Patricia had just finished her Saturday-morning chores when her lungs began burning. She was sweating and had some numbness in her arms. She drew a bath thinking, “I must be having a panic attack—I’ll be all right if I can just relax.” A few hours later, the 42-year-old still felt like she had “an elephant sitting on my chest.” Patricia canceled her usual horse-riding lesson and took a nap instead. When she awoke, she felt even worse. “Then I thought: Check [the Healthwise® Knowledgebase at] WebMD®,” says Patricia. “I had almost every heart attack symptom described in the Healthwise® Knowledgebase. I knew I had to get to the hospital right away!” Hospital tests confirmed that Patricia had indeed had a heart attack, and the following Tuesday she had triple-bypass heart surgery. Today, Patricia is back in the saddle, riding horses and enjoying life.
	You can count on Susan Van Houten—Healthwise medical writer, grandmother, and former ER nurse. “Helping people like Patricia make important medical decisions is our sole focus,” says Susan Van Houten. “We know our work makes a difference in people’s lives, every day.” The people at Healthwise are very much like the people who use our information. We’re health care consumers too. We care for our own health and for the health of our kids and parents. And, we all share a commitment to the Healthwise mission. Susan is a mother of 6, grandmother of 10, and daughter of her 78-year-old mother. Several people in her family deal with chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Just like you, she wants health information to be easy to use for herself and her family. Unlike many of our readers, Susan is an expert in developing health information and has been doing so at Healthwise for 14 years. She is also a nurse who practiced in hospitals for 25 years, 15 of which were as the director of an emergency room. “I’ve seen firsthand how valuable it is for people to have good information,” Susan says. “Helping you make better health decisions is important to me—and to all of us at Healthwise.”
	World-class heart doctor Robert Kloner, MD, PhD, is in your corner. Robert Kloner is one of 295 experts who review Healthwise information for accuracy and currency. He helps us help you make better health decisions on heart-related issues. Dr. Kloner is known as one of America’s leading heart experts. For the past 30 years Dr. Kloner has taught at medical schools, participated in major research projects, and contributed to medical journal articles. He is professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California. He is also director of research at the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and an attending cardiologist at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical School. Dr. Kloner previously directed the Cardiac Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. He has also edited 18 authoritative medical texts. “Good information is critical to good health and good health care,” says Dr. Kloner. “With easy-to-understand, reliable information, people can make good decisions. When I hear stories like Patricia’s, I’m especially gratified to be part of the Healthwise review team.”

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If you would like to comment on the Healthwise^® Knowledgebase, please contact your sponsoring organization or e-mail Healthwise at comments@healthwise.org. If you contact Healthwise about the Healthwise^® Knowledgebase, you can expect a reply within about two weeks.

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