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Last checked 3/10/2024

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Hearing
  • Reddit Hearing Aid Group This is a discussion group for hearing aid users.
  • Deaf and Hard of Hearing Assistive Devices ($) This is a commercial site.
  • Hearing Aid Info This site tracks hearing aid pricing specific to models and vendors. It also has reviews and a very active forum.
  • Best Over The Counter Hearing Aids (2024) according to CNet.
  • Best Online Hearing Tests (2025) according to CNet.
  • ADCO Hearing Products ($) This is a commercial site.
  • Deaf and Hard of Hearing Organizations
  • Hearing Loss/Mayo Clinic Connect has a great deal of info related to the politics of hearing as well as discussion groups. (This used to be the Hearing Loss Association of America site which closed in 2019 and merged with Mayo Clinic.)
  • Hearing Tracker Forum4 outta 5 is a discussion group with a high volume (no pun intended) of activity. This site also includes hearing aid reviews, something almost all other sites avoid.
  • Dr Cliff Audiologist is a YouTube artist that has videos relevant to hearing aids. Take it with some salt and the usual cynicism about purchasing items that cost thousands of dollars.
  • Ahearingaid has prices on a bunch of aids.
  • House Ear Institute - another advocacy group
  • AARP Hearing Resource Center
  • Hearing Aid Brands The list shows who makes hearing aids - eg, who makes Costco aids, etc.
  • HearingDirect ($) sells name-brand aids as well as all kinds of hard-of-hearing accessories. This is an overseas shop but it is informative to see the pricing.
  • Direct Hearing Aid Services ($) repairs hearing aids. No need to replace them with new ones.
  • Hearing Loss Simulator attempts to shows what hearing loss sounds like - it is not just lower volume.
  • Deafness has a variety of articles related to hearing loss.
  • Sign Language - GIFs, from the Sign With Robert site.
  • Learn Sign Language This is a short article about learning sign language with the help of Android apps.
  • Say What Club - is a small support club of ‘late-deafened’ souls. Site includes a number of mailing lists and discussion groups although it is almost impossible to figure out how to access the discussions.
  • Alexander Graham Bell Association for Deaf and Hard of Hearing is an advocacy group.
  • Association of Late-Deafened Adults This group intends to support people who have lost the ability to understand speech with or without hearing aids after acquiring spoken language (late-deafened). The site includes some clear explanations of hearing aids and other devices to assist the hard of hearing and deaf to communicate more effectively.
  • Hearing Loss Forum This is the alt.support.hearing-loss Usenet. In other words, this is a public forum for anybody who wants to say anything or ask anything about hearing loss but the site is not moderated so there is a bunch of garbage on it.
  • Beyond Hearing – is a discussion group for the hard of hearing that requires special permission to access. You may be able to read some of the postings by using this link.
  • Living With Hearing Loss Blog is a blog about Shari Eberts' experiences with hearing loss. She also writes about other issues related to hearing and has an active following with many comments.
  • Reddit Hard Of Hearing discussion group is moderately active.
  • Find a Chapter This part of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) site helps you locate local chapter meetings.
  • Hearables This article talks about a new category of hearing appliance called hearables which do not have FDA approval but are increasingly able to assist in hearing. Thanks, Mike. Well worth reading for those who are aware of decreasing abilities to hear or understand sounds or speech.
  • Hard of Hearing Devices This is a list of device types along with associated vendors and is managed by the government.
Sight/Eyeglasses
Cancer
Mental Health
Drugs
Veterinary Medicine
Diabetes
Chiropractic
Aging
  • Friends Life Care - aging in your home.
  • National Institute On Aging Like most government sites, the information tends to be delivered as general overviews of issues related to aging. It is useful as a first stop.
  • Retirement Living5 stars is home of the SourceBook as well as a pretty good database of retirement and aging housing options. Good source to find options even if the important details are missing.
  • Medicare Contacts is a big list of organizations in Pennsylvania (other states are available) that supply advice and counseling about medical coverage and/or information about medical service providers in the state.
  • Pennsylvania Department of Aging - official site.
  • Montgomery County Aging Services - official site.
  • Best Nursing Homes according to US News and World Report. Article includes advice on finding and evaluating nursing homes.
  • Long Term Care Facilities (2024) This article describes the various levels of care available in the long term facilities. Good starting point in trying to understand what is out there.
  • Eldercare Locator Sponsored by the US Administration on Aging, this site helps you locate agencies that assist in elder care including assistance with insurance, transportation, housing, support, etc.
  • My LifeSite - directory of Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC), simliar to SourceBook.
  • Caring.com Take caution in contacting these folks as they disperse your email and phone numbers to their clients. However, they do have a lot of useful info on their site including information on Medicaid, home care, senior living services, etc. They also have a list of top care providers as rated by users of their service (which is kind of self serving since only service providers who are associated with Caring.com are eligible for their award).
  • Tech-Enhanced Life This site attempts to gather sources and information related to technology that can enhance one's life especially for those who need some extra help. Warning: There are clues, however, that raise red flags such as not being able to see their "useful apps" list until you answer a survey (i.e., turn over some personal information). Their privacy policy is pretty clear and one-sided and basically says that they will collect personal information that you supply or that they can collect and share it with anyone they consider one of their "...affiliates".
  • Cost of Care Estimator - sponsored by Genworth, this calculator estimates the monthly cost of various levels of care.
  • TheSeniorList provides links to discounted services available to seniors along with reviews of many aids to senior life like phones, medical alerts, tubs, etc. However, the reviews of retirement and nursing homes look to be linked to A Place For Mom, which collects information supplied by visitors to the site and sells it to client facilities who will call you forever.
Medicare
  • Medicare.gov This is the main page for the Medicare site.
  • Medicare Contacts is a big list of organizations in Pennsylvania (other states are available) that supply advice and counseling about medical coverage and/or information about medical service providers in the state.
  • Medicare Plan Compare This part of the Medicare site lets you enter your location and the drugs that you use. It will then show you how much those drugs will cost under various plans and at pharmacies that you select to compare.
  • Hospital Ratings from the Medicare folks based on satisfaction surveys.
  • Medicare Plan Finder helps you find plans that are best suited for you based on your medication and illness choices.
Covid-19
  • Covid Testing Kit Expiration Dates Almost all of the Covid kits have had their expiration dates extended.
  • Free Covid Test Kits This is the official Health and Human Services site which explains how to get the test kits that are delivered through the USPS.
  • Find Covid Shot This is the official .gov site. Most sites allow for scheduling.
  • County Level Covid Status as measured by hospital admissions per 100,000. Apparently, the CDC does not want to be very specific about the data as there are now three status colors - green, yellow, and red. That's all you get.
  • Hospital Bed Utilization This site is almost useless since the data cannot be filtered, forcing the users to page through huge amounts of data.
  • PA Hospital Bed Utilization The site forces the user to use a complicated graphical user interface when a simple table would suffice. Tables are available but use codes instead of hospital names and GPS coordinates instead of locations and are probably as the source of the graphical reports.
  • CDC Covid-19 - official site with maps of COVID levels by county and state.
  • CDC Covid-19 Tracker - official site with maps of COVID levels by county and state.
  • CDC Data Tracker has a lot of data and is pretty good at reporting useful numbers but you have to dig to get down to your local level. They provide links to state data. For PA, check out the Early Warning data.
  • PA Department of Health Data - official site. This is a BI (Business Intelligence) tool of some kind with a lot of raw data. Use the filter to restrict the display to a specific county. Data does not seem to be updated since June, 2023.
  • NPR4 outta 5 This site shows data on bed capacity by hospital for a selected county.
  • CDC Covid-19 Self-Test is a symptom checker. The site states that the chatbot is not meant to be diagnostic, however.
  • WHO Covid-19 Myth Buster Site tries to correct misinformation and myths related to the virus.
  • New York Times Map shows where new cases and deaths are rising - you can get to the county level.
  • Covid-19 Statistics has some serious numbers furnished by an independent statistics organization. Thanks, Renie.
  • PA State Department of Health has policy statements, number of cases by county, and daily updates.
  • PA Covid Vaccine Info has an eligibity quiz - click on When Am I Eligible - and has a map of places where you can sign up to get vaccinated. Scroll down the page a little to see it. Thanks, Deb.
  • PA State Department of Health Covid-19 Daily Updates
  • Montgomery County Office of Health has policy statements, statistics, and locations of health centers.
  • Montgomery County Covid Information4 outta 5 There are links on this page to registration pages for vaccination. Thanks, Deb.
  • Montgomery County PA Township Map has a map showing cases by township. Active cases = the number of positvely identified cases less the number of recoveries and deaths. This site also has a lot of other information about the status of the pandemic in the county.
  • Covid Tracking Project - PA History The Covid Tracking Project has stats for each state. Stats include the number tested, number of positives and negatives, number of cases, and number of deaths. The history page shows these stats by date.
  • 91-Dovic This site has visualizations to show the growth of Covid-19 cases by country and by state. Another site to obsess over (see site below).
  • StatNews - medical news with a focus on Covid-19 outbreak
  • Best Covid-19 Graphs is an article by The Verge folks.
  • Best Sites with Covid-19 Graphics identifies Web sites with useful graphics but most are too global to be useful for the common citizen trying to figure out if there are local hospital beds available for them.
  • ICU Bed Utilization This New York Times article shows how many ICU beds are available in each hospital in a selected county. Hopefully, these data are updated daily.
  • Vaccine Distribution has graphics depicting the number of does allotted to each state and how many doses have been administered.
  • Covid Trends This is a 2023 New York Times interactive map with data showing the CDC status ratings. Data at the county level is protected by a firewall and you have to subscribe to see it.
  • Montgomery County Vaccine Distribution Info includes the current prioritization policies.
  • FDA List of Hand Sanitizer You Should NOT Use for various reasons such as the inclusion of propanol or methanol or because the potentcy is substandard.
  • Should You Wear A Mask - This article from Ars Technica provides pro and con information. The article concludes with, "If you do wear a mask, be sure to remove it from behind your head. Don’t touch the surface of the mask. If you do touch the surface, immediately wash your hands or use hand sanitizer."
  • Meditation Apps This is a (2020) PCMag article reviewing 13 apps to help you relax, meditate, and de-stress.
  • How to Identify and Report Price Gouging
  • Where to Buy Covid Test Kits

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