Background Information
Do some preliminary research using background sources to familiarize yourself with the terminology and basic information about your topic. The more you know going in, the easier it will be to make sense of your data later.
-
UpToDate This link opens in a new windowSummaries of the latest evidence-based information intended to support nurses, doctors, and other care providers. Tip: Try searching for "health issue + epidemiology" for a useful overview.
-
Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowAn online, cross-searchable collection of reference books on a variety of subjects from more than 50 publishers.
Find Health Data
Government run, public health organizations with a mandate to track disease epidemiology in the interest of community health. These organizations administer large scale, resource-intensive studies that measure health outcomes over time.
-
Chicago Health AtlasVisualize City of Chicago-wide health trend information and data from sources including the City of Chicago and local hospitals.
-
CDPH Health Data and ReportsEpidemiological data and reports from the Chicago Department of Public Health.
-
Illinois Department of Public Health - Data & StatisticsLinks to data sets and statistics from Illinois health-related surveillance, monitoring and reporting systems, the Illinois Morbidity and Mortality Bulletin, disease incidences and more.
-
CDC Data & Statistics This link opens in a new windowExtensive statistical data, reports, and analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Access note: Freely available to the public.
-
FastStats (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC)FastStats provides quick access to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Topics include diseases and conditions, injuries, life stages and populations, health care and insurance, births, and deaths.
-
Global Health Observatory (World Health Organization)Health data for individual countries, regions and global coverage presented in a variety of downloadable formats. Resources include country profiles, a map gallery, references to other relevant publications and data sources.
Researchers and scholars who collect data to make new discoveries about disease with the goal of expanding the pool of scientific knowledge and identifying potential interventions to improve outcomes.
-
PubMed This link opens in a new windowIndexes biomedical journals from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. Also links to molecular biology databases of DNA/protein sequences and 3-D structure data.
Dates Covered: 1966-present.
Access note: Freely available to the public.
Access note 2: This is the new PubMed interface recently released by NLM. The legacy version of PubMed is available in parallel until Spring 2020 and can be accessed here. -
CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new windowProvides indexing and full text access to nursing journals, practice acts, and conference proceedings.
Dates Covered: 1980-present. -
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowIndexes journals in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multicultural studies and education.
Dates Covered: 1887-present.
Extent: Multidisciplinary
Researchers are increasingly sharing their original data alongside published articles. Data sharing helps others reproduce and validate experiments and reuse old data to test new hypotheses. You can search for this data in open data repositories like ICPSR.
-
ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) This link opens in a new windowThe world's largest archive of computerized social science data.
Access note: Only available to authenticated DePaul users. In order to download restricted data sets, DePaul users must first create and sign in with an ICPSR MyData account while on DePaul’s campus or utilizing their DePaul e-mail address. Create an account here: http://bit.ly/201zdoq.
Journalists that visualize and interpret data (often from other sources) to inform the public about newsworthy health issues. This can be a good way to find out about data to explore further, or get familiar with a topic you may be interested in researching.
-
Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (CDC)Weekly epidemiological digest for the United States published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
-
Global Health NowGlobal Health News roundup from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
-
ProPublicaIn-depth, data-driven investigative reporting on various topics, including the environment and health care.
-
NPR Global HealthGlobal health news from National Public Radio and member stations.
Many nonprofit and advocacy organizations also collect and share health data as part of their efforts to influence public policy.
-
Health and Medical Care ArchiveData archive for studies funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (hosted by ICPSR).
-
State Health Facts (Kaiser Family Foundation)A convenient platform for finding state-based demographic data relating to minority populations, medical school graduates, and women's and men's health disparities.
Contact Me!
Sveta Stoytcheva
she/her
Contact:
Loop Campus Library
DePaul Center, 10th Floor
sveta.stoytcheva@depaul.edu
DePaul Center, 10th Floor
sveta.stoytcheva@depaul.edu
(312) 362-5764
Website