The Best Health Research Resources

Day-to-day health news

• Reuters -Exclusive wired news,

• Associated Press -Exclusive wired news,

Government & Official Health Organizations

• CDC (cdc.gov) — Disease data, outbreak alerts, public health guidance, but complaints of government agenda bias has arose.

• NIH (nih.gov) — Research findings, clinical trials, medical science,but complaints of government agenda bias has arose.

• WHO (who.int) — Global health news and international disease tracking

Academic & Peer-Reviewed

• NEJM (nejm.org) — New England Journal of Medicine; rigorous peer-reviewed research

• JAMA (jamanetwork.com) — Journal of the American Medical Association

• The Lancet (thelancet.com) — Highly respected international medical journal

• PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — Free database of peer-reviewed studies

Reputable Health Journalism

• STAT News (statnews.com) — Science-focused health reporting with strong sourcing

• Reuters Health / AP Health — Wire services with generally careful, fact-checked reporting

• NPR Health (npr.org/sections/health) — Accessible, well-sourced public health coverage

• The BMJ (bmj.com) — British Medical Journal; research and commentary

Consumer-Friendly but Medically Reviewed

• Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic.org) — Clinician-reviewed health information

• MedlinePlus (medlineplus.gov) — NIH's plain-language health library

Tips for evaluating any health source:

• Look for named authors with medical/scientific credentials

• Check if claims link to original studies (not just other articles)

• Be skeptical of headlines with extreme language ("cure," "miracle," "deadly")

• Single studies rarely overturn established science — look for consensus

• Note who funds the publication or research

The gold standard is always peer-reviewed research — but for day-to-day health news, STAT News and the wire services (Reuters, AP) tend to be among the most careful with how they translate science into headlines.