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Worth While Web:50 Useful Sites for Family Physicians

The World Wide Web can be a tremendous resource for you and your patients if you know where to look. Here's your guide.

Mindi K. McKenna, PhD

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If you're like many of your physician colleagues, you probably use the Internet occasionally - to check stock prices or weather forecasts, to e-mail family or friends, or to purchase books or gifts online. Why? Using the Internet for such purposes was probably fairly easy to learn, and it offered convenient, immediate value. Odds are, you're willing to use the Internet in your medical practice, too - if doing so is equally convenient and beneficial. The key is finding Web sites that offer quick, easy-to-use information and services.

The Web sites described in this article do just that, offering a variety of resources for professional development and continuing medical education, for educating and helping your patients, and for finding a job and referencing clinical data. Though quite varied in the services they provide, these Web sites do have several common characteristics: All are easy to use and free of charge (except where noted). All are helpful for family practice. And many of these Web sites were developed by physicians to solve problems they know you face.

Web sites that help you help your patients

There are numerous Web sites available today to help educate patients about important health care topics and assist them in getting the care they need. While not all of them can be listed in this article, the following Web sites address three unique and important areas of concern among many patients and their physicians:

Rx expenses. Many physicians are concerned about poor patient compliance that often occurs when patients cannot afford to purchase needed medications. At www.rxassist.org, a site sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, you'll find information on over 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers' patient assistance programs, including programs that offer free prescription medications for eligible patients. The Web site's database can be searched by manufacturer name, medication (branded or generic name) or therapeutic class and displays each company's program criteria guidelines along with step-by-step application instructions. When available from the manufacturer, actual application forms are posted online for the patient or caregiver to complete as required by the manufacturer. You can also download a sample letter for use in certifying a patient's need for assistance.

more at http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20010400/23wort.html