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MedlinePlus demo: easy-to-read pages, translations and handouts for older adults
Summary
NNLM trainers demonstrated MedlinePlus features useful to libraries serving older adults, including demographic filters, easy-to-read pages, Spanish translations, downloadable patient handouts and links that lead from consumer pages into PubMed and journal articles.
Benny Finch guided attendees through MedlinePlus, calling it a key consumer-health product of the National Library of Medicine and showing how topic pages are organized for older adults. Finch said attendees could find roughly 200 health topics for older adults and pointed out the "For you" section with patient handouts that libraries can print or email.
Finch emphasized multilingual support: "The MedlinePlus Spanish team is made up of individuals who are native Spanish speakers and have experience in health, medicine, and biological sciences." He also noted that many topic pages show a "last updated" date (example shown: 01/22/2026) so librarians can check currency. The demo covered easy-to-read materials, videos, and links to related resources such as the medical encyclopedia and professional society pages.
Librarians in the chat raised whether printed publications are still orderable; presenters and attendees said most resources have moved to downloadable PDFs but that a few printed items may remain available through specific programs.
