What Is Consumer Health Complete and Who Should Use It?

Consumer Health Complete (CHC) is an in-depth, user friendly resource designed to answer everyday consumer health questions in both English and Spanish. CHC covers all areas of health and wellness, from mainstream medicine to perspectives on integrated and holistic medical practices. Users can find information on almost any medical topic, and with a unique user interface that combines images with text to make searching easy, CHC is a great resource for any patron looking for answers to their health questions.

What Special Features Can I Use?

• Quick Find – get easy access to information on diseases, injuries, or procedures by clicking through an alphabetical list of topics and subjects

• Browse Popular Sources – browse through the most popular reference books and encyclopedias to get an answer to your question. Such sources include the AMA Complete Medical Encyclopedia, Mayo Clinic Family Health Book, and Cornell Illustrated Encyclopedia of Health, among others.

• Medical Dictionary – use the Merriam-Webster’s Medical Desk Dictionary for quick reference to medical terms

• Search by Topic – browse and/or search within the database by clicking on a specific topic

How Do I Conduct a Basic Search Using Consumer Health Complete?

BASIC SEARCH:

Example: You want to find information on “Parkinson’s Disease.”

• Step 1 – in the Find box, type in “Parkinson’s Disease.” Notice that as you type, CHC tries to match your search terms with its indexed topics.
• Step 2 – Click the Search button to the right.
• Step 3 – Instead of viewing all of your results at once, CHC allows you to divide them based on Publication Type—click on any of the eight search tabs at the top of your search results to narrow the information on your topic by format.
• Step 4 – Click on the title of the result you want for its citation information, or use the html or PDF full text link to view the entire article.

How Do I Use the Advanced Search Features?

ADVANCED SEARCH:

Example: How can I find an article on Parkinson’s Disease AND Michael J. Fox?

• Step 1 – Click the Advanced Search link near the top of your screen above the search box.
• Step 2 – In the Find box, type “Parkinson’s Disease” and select the Title Field to the right.
• Step 3 – Select and as your Boolean Operator.
• Step 4 – Type “Michael J. Fox” in the next search box and select the All Text Field to the right.
• Step 5 – Click Search.

How Do I Use the “Popular Sources” for Information?

SPECIAL FEATURES SEARCH:

Example: How can I use the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book to find treatment information for insect bites?

Step 1 – From the CHC main page, scroll down and click on the link to the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book.

Step 2 – In the Search box, type “insect bites” and click Search, OR scroll down to Part IV: First Aid and Emergency Care and click on “Bites and Stings.”

How Can I Find Pictures and Diagrams on CHC?

SPECIAL FEATURES SEARCH:

Example: How can I get a diagram of the inside of the human ear?

Step 1 – From the CHC main page, click on the link or picture to Images & Diagrams. Step 2 – Type “ear” in the Find box and click Search. Step 3 – Scroll to desired search result and click on the Image you would like to view.

For more search tips, follow the link to the EBSCO Support Site at the bottom of the page and type “Consumer Health Complete.”

This page was created by Sophronia Bruno in Spring 2007.
INF382S: Library Instruction and Information Literacy, taught by Dr. Loriene Roy
School of Information, The University of Texas at Austin.