Alternative Medicine Foundation

Journal of Family Practice, July, 2000 by Marsha J. Handel, Debbie Oberlander

Alternative Medicine Foundation URL: WWW.AMFOUNDATION.ORG WEBMASTER E-MAIL: AMFI@AMFOUNDATION.ORG

The mission of the nonprofit Alternative Medicine Foundation (AMF) is to provide "evidence-based research resources for health care professionals" and reliable health information for patients and consumers. The President of the AMF is Jackie Wootton, MEd, informatics project director of the Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The AMF offers a variety of Internet-based information services. Among them is HerbMed (Figure 1), an interactive herbal formulary hypertext-linked to supporting MEDLINE references and other relevant Web sites. There are links to plant databases, government information, and other materia medica. One-sentence summaries of research articles are provided, but there is no integration of the material from these sources. From the AMF homepage, users choose the HerbMed link, then choose an herb from the list provided (approximately 75) or search by herb or by disease. The following information is provided for each herb: evidence of activity (data from controlled clinical trials, case studies, traditional use, and more), warnings (contraindications, toxic and adverse effects, and drug interactions), preparations (commercial and folk methods), mixtures (commercial and folk), mechanisms of action (constituents, biochemistry, and so forth), and other (links to related Web sites, pictures, and the PubMed database).

[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The site's straightforward design with few graphics facilitates quick loading of pages. Also timesaving is the option to return to the top of the page that appears at frequent intervals. Site organization is clear, and a menu of options and contact information appears on each page. The Web site is copyrighted 1998 with no indication of updates. However, HerbMed appears to be current with new herbs added every month.

Marsha J. Handel, MLS Debbie Oberlander, MS, RD, CNSD New York, NY