Keep Up With the Latest Health News - Set Up Yahoo or Google News Alerts

Make a list of keywords or phrases you know would be used to describe what you want information about. They may refer to your diagnosis, the name of a drug, or any other word or phrase.

You'll want to be specific to prevent receiving too many alerts that are irrelevant. The term "cancer," for example, will deliver too many hits that aren't useful. "Breast cancer" will be more specific and relevant. "Metastatic breast cancer" would be even better.

Don't be concerned with case; upper or lowercase words will deliver the same results.

Choose to receive your alerts from either Google or Yahoo. You won't need both, as they will both deliver the same news.

You can get to the two engines' news pages in two ways. Go directly to the Google News homepage or Yahoo News homepage.

-- or --

Go to the Google homepage and click the word "news" above the logo; if using Yahoo, go to the Yahoo homepage and click the word "more" above the search box, then choose "news."

We'll stick to using Google for the rest of this "how to," but the information is identical for Yahoo.

No matter whether you are on the main homepage or the news homepage, choose one of the terms you listed in Step 1, and put it in the search box. Then click "search."

Your results will reflect all the current news, sometimes a week or a month's worth. But don't stop to read them just yet. We still need to set up your alerts.

To the left of the results, you'll see a small envelope and a link named "news alerts." Click on that link.

You'll find yourself on the News Alerts page.

On the right of the News Alerts page, you can see that your search term has been plugged into "Search Terms."

You will set up this one term or phrase as an alert. You can tailor this alert by choosing what type of information you'd like to receive. If you want only news, then choose just that. (You'll need to set up separate alerts for blogs, videos and groups if you're interested in them in the future.) If you'd like to receive any and all alerts, click "comprehensive."

You can also choose how often you'd like to receive your alerts. Once you've done that, you'll need to include your e-mail address.

Click on "create alert." You'll be taken to a validation page that instructs you to check your e-mail to validate your e-mail address. You'll need to do that, or it won't allow you to receive the alerts or set up any more.

Check your e-mail account and click on the link provided in the validation e-mail from Google.

You'll now find yourself at your personal alerts page. If you ever want to change the terms, the frequency of delivery or the type of alerts you receive, you'll be able to do so from this page. You can also cancel any alerts you no longer want to receive.

Now return to that list of terms and phrases you made in Step 1. In the lower right corner of the alerts page, you'll see "new alert." Click on it.

You'll find a search box for setting up more terms and phrases for notification, just as you did the first one.

Now you'll begin to receive the alerts you've requested. The key now is to be sure you know how to assess the information for its credibility.

If you ever want to return to your main alerts page, you'll be able to do so from any of the e-mails you receive that contain alerts. Links in these e-mails will direct you to the proper pages to remove an alert, create a new alert, or manage your existing alerts.

Google or Yahoo news alerts can provide you with as much information as you'd like. You will probably find yourself changing your requests as time goes on, perhaps adding new terms to your search list, or cutting back on the frequency of delivery. Take the time to tailor your alerts and you'll find it's easy and useful to stay current with the latest news.

You'll want to use quotation marks around any phrases you set up as alerts. For example "metastatic breast cancer" will notify you of any news that includes that exact phrase.

If you don't use the quotation marks, you'll see that you get every alert that includes the words separately, so you'd get an email for every article that had the word "metastatic" whether or not it was about breast cancer, and every article that had either "breast" or "cancer" even if that's not what you wanted.

Using quotation marks will help you get the specific information you seek.

While you still have your alerts page open, you'll want to change your password so you can make changes later.

On the top of the page, off to the right, click on the word SETTINGS.

On the left, choose CHANGE PASSWORD. You will want to take this step to confirm you know how to get to this page. By default, Google uses the password you use to log into your email (not good!) so use that for the "current password," then choose another for your alerts.

Record them both somewhere for later.