“The mission of the American Association of Medical Assistants is to provide the medical assistant professional with education, certification, credential acknowledgment, networking opportunities, scope-of-practice protection, and advocacy for quality patient-centered health care. Membership includes CMA Today, the only publication of its kind dedicated to meeting the educational and informational needs of the practicing medical assistant and, to a lesser extent, the medical assisting educator and student. LSB has CMA Today in print.
The Medical Assistant entry from BLS’ Occupation Outlook Handbook provides information on career qualifications, employment and salary projections.
ALLIED HEALTH CLEARANCES- PRERQUISITES TO MED 290
Potential externs must provide proof of payment showing that clearances were requested within six months of externship or by submitting valid clearances (FBI check must match service code: 1KG756) that were ordered within the the past four years.
NOTE: proof of purchase must be submitted not the actual record.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL THREE CLEARANCES ARE REQUIRED PRIOR TO PLACEMENT IN MED 290 -EXTERNSHIP AND ARE A REQUIREMENT FOR HIRING AT MOST PENNSYLVANIA LICENSED MEDICAL FACILITIES.
Do them digitally and save money!
PA Criminal Check - $22.00 (Price check: 02/18/2020; Help Desk: 1-888-783-7972)
- Go to website: https://epatch.state.pa.us
- Click on “Submit a New Record Check.”
- Select “Individual Request,” and then click “Continue.”
- Select “Employment” as reason for request.
- Complete all of the fields, then click “Next.”
- Review information and click “Proceed.”
- Fill in your current name and date of birth for the “Record Check Request.”
- You will also be asked to enter other names you may have used in the past. Click “Enter This Request.”
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and it will say “View Queued Record Check Requests.” Click “Finished.”
- Review information, click “Submit,” and then click “Checkout.”
- Print a copy of the payment record for externship file and a copy of the record for your MED290 portfolio.
FBI SERVICE CODE: 1KG756
FBI Criminal History Check - $23.85 (Price check: 02/08/2020; Help Desk 1-844-321-2101)
- Go to the website: https://uenroll.identogo.com
- Enter Service Code: 1KG756
- Click on “Schedule or Manage Appointment.”
- Complete fields then click “Next.”
- Enter Citizenship Information and click “Next.”
- Answer the next 3 questions and click “Next.”
- Complete Personal Information page and click “Next.”
- Enter mailing and residential address and click “Next.”
- Choose a form of identification that you will bring with you to your appointment and click “Next.”
- Enter a zip code to find a location near you, choose the location, and click “Next.”
- Select a date and time for your appointment, then click “Submit.”
- Print a copy of the payment record for externship file and a copy of the record for your MED 290 portfolio.
Remember to bring your state issued ID (It has to match exactly to the name you entered into the online Indentgo application).
FBI SERVICE CODE: 1KG756
PA Child Abuse Clearance - $13.00 (Price check 2/18/2020; Help Desk: 1-877-371-5422)
- Go to the website: https://www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis/public/home
- Click “Create and Individual Account.”
- Fill out the required fields. The Keystone ID is a username that you create and need to remember for this site.
- Complete the three Security questions at the bottom.
- Click “Finish.”
- You will get a temporary password via email. Retrieve the temporary password.
- Go back to the website above and then click “Individual Login.”
- Click “Access My Clearance” then “Continue.”
- Enter a username and the temporary password. You will be prompted to enter a new password. It will then log you out, and then you will have to log back in.
- Click “I have read, fully…” at the bottom and then click “Next.”
- Click “Continue” next screen.
- Click “CREATE CLEARANCE APPLICATION” button.
- You will need:
- Addresses where you have previously lived over the past 10 years.
- Names of all individuals with whom you have lived over the past 10 years including: parents, guardians, siblings, spouses, roommates, etc.
- Any previous names you have used or have been known by or any alias used.
- Credit/Debit card information for the $13.00 application fee.
- Click "Begin" at the bottom.
- Select “Individual 14 years of age or older who is applying for or holding a paid position…” option as the reason for request.
- Complete the fields as directed.
- Confirm that the information entered is correct.
- Enter your e-signature and click “Next.”
- The answer to “Did the organization provide a code for your application” is “No.”
- Click on “Make a Payment.”
- Submit information for payment.
- Watch for notification the record is ready and print it for your portfolio.
FBI SERVICE CODE: 1KG756
Liability Insurance
http://www.proliability.com/professional-liability-insurance/students#
Instructions for applying for student liability insurance
Local Health Departments
Bucks County Pennsylvania Health Department
http://www.buckscounty.org/government/humanservices/HealthDepartment
Delaware County Pennsylvania Department of Intercommunity Health
http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/intercommunity/index.html
Montgomery County Pennsylvania Health Department
http://health.montcopa.org/health/site/default.asp
Philadelphia Department of Public Health
http://www.phila.gov/health/
Public Health
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/pathway.html Pathways to Public Helath Information: Selected links to information on environmental health and toxicology, disasters, chemicals, drugs, and special populations.
Specialized Medical Search Engines
http://mednar.com/ “Mednar is a free, publicly available deep web search engine that uses advanced federated search technology to return high quality results by submitting your search query - in real-time - to other well respected search engines. Mednar then collates, ranks and drops duplicates of the results.”
http://www.pogofrog.com/
PogoFrog.com is a medical research custom search enginethat jumps over these layman-focused sites and returns only credible medical site links on the first results page and on every results page. This is done by specifically excluding consumer sites and specifically including only credible healthcare sites such as FDA.gov, peer-review journal sites, association sites and others.PogoFrog.com jumps over the layman-focused clutter on the Internet to find only credible medical information for physicians.
Health on the Net search engine
Evaluation of Information
National Library of Medicine's Evaluating Health Information.
Free Access Scholarly Publications
Free peer-reviewed scientific articles in all areas of medical research and biology.
“The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academies to publish the reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the most authoritative views on important issues in science and health policy. We offer more than 4,000 titles in PDF format. All of these PDFs can be downloaded for free by the chapter or the entire book.”
PubMed and PubMed Central, the free archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM). Use "Filter Your Results" to retrieve free full text articles in PubMed or select PubMed Central for free full text articles.
Links for Medical Information
http://www.aarp.org/health/AgeLine American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Social gerontology and the study of aging in social, psychological, health-related, and economic contexts.
http://clinicaltrials.govClinicalTrials.gov Explains benefits and risks of clinical trials and how to become a participant. Includes trials conducted by NIH, other federal agencies, and pharmaceutical companies.
https://cam.cochrane.org/consumer-summaries
Cochrane Collaboration CAM Reviews Coordinated by University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, written in plain language.
The Coalition Against Drug Abuse website features extensive information for anyone facing drug addiction or alcoholism issues, and offers a number of resources to aid in successful treatment and recovery. Sample resources include: general information about drugs (prevention, teen drug abuse, workplace drug abuse, recovery), symptoms and signs of drug use, drug effects and where to find help.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. Provides research on addiction and prevention.
Consumer Drug information from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' (ASHP), Cerner Multum and Wolters Kluwer.
Free online courses in medicine, patient communication, anatomy, etc.
Follow That Blood Sample - Patient Information Articles
“Accessible collection of prescription medication package inserts and medication
labels directly from the FDA’s central repository.”
www.healthcarebluebook.com/Healthcare Blue Book is a free consumer guide to help you determine fair prices in your area for healthcare services. If you pay for your own healthcare, have a high deductible or need a service your insurance does not fully cover, we can help. The Blue Book will help you find fair prices for surgery, hospital stays, doctor visits, medical tests and much more.
http://www.healthnewsreview.org/
Health News Review is dedicated to improving the accuracy of news stories about medical treatments, tests, products and procedure and helping consumers evaluate the evidence for and against new ideas in health care.
“American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s Lab Tests Online has been designed to help you, as a patient or family caregiver, to better understand the many clinical lab tests that are part of routine care as well as diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of conditions and diseases.”
http://medlineplus.gov/Medline Plus: Information from the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health.
National Institute on Aging health information. "Access up-to-date and reliable information on aging research and health and wellness for older adults. Additionally, the NIA Go4Life Web site offers exercises, motivational tips, and free resources to help older adults start and continue exercising. Other sources of information for older adults and their families include the NIHSeniorHealth YouTube Channel, which includes more than 110 videos about various health and wellness information, and the NLM consumer health Web site, MedlinePlus, which offers three topics Exercise for Seniors, Nutrition for Seniors, and Seniors’ Health."
http://www.medscape.com/Medscape from Web MD Individuals can register for access on the home page (free). User name: lsbstudent Password: student
http://www.guideline.gov/The National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC) is a comprehensive database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents.
http://www.netwellness.org/NetWellness: Consortium of University of Cincinnati, Case Western Reserve University and Ohio State University.
Searchable source of cancer-related information from the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center.
www.quackwatch.comQuackwatch. Stephen Barrett, MD. Nonprofit company formed to expose health-related frauds, myths, fads, and fallacies.
https://www.samhsa.gov/
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has partnered with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to host restricted data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Provides the latest national data on alcohol misuse, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, and other drug abuse, and research relating serious mental illness, serious emotional distrubance, and opioids.
https://www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/767492/all/Medical_Abbreviations
Tabers Medical Dictionary List of Abbreviations.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
U.S. National Library of Medicine
www.patients.uptodate.com
UpToDate® Patient Information Continuously updated patient-level literature reviews on health topics A to Z.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/ “The Surgeon General of the Public Health Service has focused the Nation's attention on important public health issues. Reports of the Surgeon General on the adverse health consequences of smoking triggered nationwide efforts to prevent tobacco use. Reports on nutrition, violence, and HIV/AIDS—to name but a few—have heightened America's awareness of important public health issues and generated major public health initiatives.”
http://www.vh.org/Virtual Hospital is the Apprentice's Assistant (TM) and is a service of University of Iowa Health Care.
http://www.martindalecenter.com/
The "Virtual" Medical Center.
Web MD
Images, Illustrations, etc.
Bernard Becker Medical Library, Washington University, St. Louis. Resources for images.