The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has announced the debut of MedlinePlusConnect ("Connect"), a free service that links an electronic health record (EHR) system to MedlinePlus.  Because MedlinePlus contains hundreds of health related pages that bring together information from the National Institutes of Health, other US government agencies, and other authoritative health information providers, this new service can deliver relevant, reliable, and up-to-date health information to patients, families and health care providers - information about disorders, conditions, and medications.  "Connect" accepts requests from EHRs based on diagnosis (problem codes).  NLM has mapped MedlinePlus health topics to two standard diagnostic coding systems - the ICD-9-CM, the International Classification of Diseases, 9^th edition, Clinical Modification) and the SNOMED CT CORE Problem List Subset, the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine, Clinical Terms, CORE Problem List Subset.  When an EHR submits a diagnosis code request to "Connect", the service responds with links to the closest matching health topic(s).  When the EHR provides a patient's medication information, "Connect"  links the EHR system to drug information on MedlinePlus, information which is written especially for patients.    This data comes from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists' AHFS Consumer Medication Information.  NLM is also working on adding lab test information to "Connect".  General information on this new service is available on the overview page.  This seems like a good use of our tax dollars.  I've signed up for the listserv so I can follow the progress of what has the potential to become a consumer-friendly useful and informative system.