HealthNewsReview.org is free site created by the University of Minnesota journalism professor Gary Schwitzer, to help consumers improve their critical thinking about health claims in the news. A team of 20 reviewers from universities and clinics across the country monitor top newspapers, magazines and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, review and write critiques. Articles are rated on a scale of one to five stars, and the reviewers post thecomments.

Schwitzer says, "he thinks the quality of health care journalism is improving, it still sometimes falls short. Stories sometimes fail to spell out such things as the availability of a new treatment or the strength of the evidence behind a new study." (Associated Press)

The website is modeled after the Media Doctor, created by an Australian team and the Media Doctor Canada site (which was also modeled after the Australian site). It is funded by the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making, whose mission is to assure that people understand their choices and have the information they need to make sound decisions affecting their health and well being.

It looks to be an interesting and potentially helpful site, especially anybody who works with consumer health. I would think this would also be a great resource to list on many library web sites.