MedlinePlus Connect: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

General Questions

MedlinePlus Connect is a free service that allows health organizations and IT providers to link patient portals and electronic health record (EHR) systems to information from MedlinePlus (https://medlineplus.gov), the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) consumer health web site, and other NIH Institutes.

MedlinePlus Connect provides information on diseases and conditions, prescription and over-the-counter medications, genetic conditions and laboratory tests.

MedlinePlus is NLM's authoritative consumer health Web site. It includes consumer health information from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), plus links to information from other U.S. government agencies and trusted health information providers, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The MedlinePlus quality guidelines tells you more about how we evaluate and select links from outside organizations.

MedlinePlus helps millions of visitors a year access:

MedlinePlus is a full-featured consumer health web site. Users may access MedlinePlus through a web browser or a mobile device.
MedlinePlus Connect is a free service that allows electronic health record (EHR) systems to easily link users to health information. The information comes from MedlinePlus, an authoritative up-to-date health information resource for patients, families and health care providers, and the websites of other NIH Institutes.

Will MedlinePlus Connect help me achieve Meaningful Use? Is MedlinePlus Connect a certified health IT module?

MedlinePlus Connect is not a certified health IT module, but systems pursuing certification can use it to deliver patient-specific education resources. MedlinePlus Connect was not developed as a source for clinical decision support.

Since MedlinePlus Connect helps EHRs identify patient-specific education resources, MedlinePlus Connect may assist eligible health care providers in meeting the patient-specific education resources criteria for meaningful use of certified EHR technology. Health care providers must meet criteria demonstrating meaningful use in order to successfully participate in CMS programs requiring the use of certified EHR technology.

The National Library of Medicine does not make or interpret CMS quality program or ONC certification regulations. To learn more about the CMS EHR Incentive Programs please visit www.cms.gov/ehrincentiveprograms. To learn more about the CMS Quality Payment Program please visit www.qpp.cms.gov. For health IT certification questions please visit the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) or contact ONC.Certification@hhs.gov.

The National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, maintains MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus Connect.

MedlinePlus Connect responds to requests based on diagnosis (problem) codes, medication codes, laboratory test codes, and medical procedure codes. When an EHR or patient portal submits a code request, MedlinePlus Connect returns a response that includes links to relevant MedlinePlus health information. MedlinePlus Connect can reply with English or Spanish information. The "How MedlinePlus Connect Works" page has more information.

A demonstration page for the MedlinePlus Connect Web application allows you to view how the responses from MedlinePlus will appear in your EHR.
A demonstration page for the MedlinePlus Connect Web service is also available. It shows the responses in XML, JSON, and JSONP.

Our EHR/patient portal already links to another patient education source. Can I use it and MedlinePlus Connect in the same system?

Yes. You don't have to use MedlinePlus Connect exclusively to link to patient education information. Many EHR systems can be configured to link to more than one source of consumer health information.

The MedlinePlus Connect Web application and Web service use different methods to deliver the same easy access to MedlinePlus consumer health information. The Web application provides an on-demand, formatted MedlinePlus Connect Web page. The Web service returns XML, JSON, or JSONP, which allows implementers greater flexibility to tailor the display and format of the information.

To view the differences between the two, check out the Web application demonstration page and the Web service demonstration page.

Both the MedlinePlus Connect Web application and the MedlinePlus Connect Web service support the HL7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval (Infobutton) Knowledge Request Standard.

In addition to MedlinePlus Connect, what other data services does MedlinePlus provide?

MedlinePlus offers a search-based Web service that provides access to MedlinePlus health topic data in XML format. Using the Web service, software developers can build applications that utilize MedlinePlus health topic information. The service accepts keyword searches as requests and returns relevant health topics in ranked order. Keyword searches may be limited to specific fields. The service also returns health topic summaries, search result snippets, external links, and other associated data.
MedlinePlus also produces XML data sets of health topic and health topic group information. The XML sets are available in English and Spanish.

The MedlinePlus Connect users list contains health care organizations and electronic health record systems that have told us they are using MedlinePlus Connect. The list is not comprehensive, and because use of MedlinePlus Connect does not require licensing or registration we do not know of every organization or product that has implemented our service.

Are there any current MedlinePlus Connect users who can tell me about their experience?

MedlinePlus Connect has an email list where users can write questions and comments to the MedlinePlus Connect team as well as other users. This is a great way to find other users who can share their experiences using MedlinePlus Connect with you. In addition, you can learn about some of the Electronic Health Record systems and specific hospital or practice systems that use MedlinePlus Connect on our Users page.