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Turn to Internet for up-to-date educational materials

Patients don't come to the family physician with just a list of complaints anymore.

According to Angela O'Neil, M.D., her patients show up with reams of information culled from the Internet. O'Neil is an instructor at Mayo Medical School's department of family medicine in Rochester, Minn.

Surf this way for patient ed. Angela O'Neil, M.D., suggested several sites as good "jumping off" points into the world of patient education on the World Wide Web, including these: American Academy of Family Physicians: http://www.aafp.org American Medical Association: http://www.ama-assn.org CNN: http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/ Family.com: http://family.go.com/ HeartPoint: http://www.heartpoint.com Healthfinder: http://www.healthfinder.gov KidsHealth: http://www.kidshealth.org/index2.html Medical Matrix: http://www.medmatrix.org/index.asp National Hospice Organization: http://www.nho.org National Library of Medicine: http://www.nlm.nih.gov Parenthood Web: http://parenthoodweb.com Yahoo Health: http://www.yahoo.com/Health

"Remember when all we had to compete with was the Ladies Home Journal?" O'Neil asked at the computer class, "Provide Education Materials to Your Patients Through the World Wide Web." "Now, technology has taken us so much further beyond that. Now, with the click of a button, our patients can bring us information from a clinic in Brazil. As family physicians, it's important for us to be aware of what are patients are accessing and show them where they can go for more, and perhaps better, information."

Physicians need to catch up with their patients when it comes to using the Internet, O'Neil said. "They're not going to wait around for us. If we can't talk to them about the information they have, or show them ways to get other information, they're going to go looking for help elsewhere."

Yes, family physicians are busy. But being able to work the Internet quickly can only be learned through practice, she said. "Soon you'll be able to find not only good, credible information for your patients, but also helpful information for yourself."

Although there is a lot of good information on the Internet, family physicians need to recognize and let their patients know when the information may not be so credible.

"Family physicians need to know what to look for in a 'legitimate' health web site," O'Neil said. Most web sites from credible organizations are updated often and include an e-mail address for the site's designer. "If you don't see this information, then I would worry about where the information is coming from," she said.

Family physicians should also be wary of information from chat rooms, news groups or personal web pages.

If a patient has information that doesn't seem credible, offer "a list of good sites that you've been to and believe," she said. Family physicians can start their web browsing by visiting sites of associations such as the AAFP or the American Cancer Society. Links in these sites can lead to other credible sites.

"Patients only retain about 30 percent of what we tell them," O'Neil said. "But they'll remember 60 to 80 percent of what they're given in a handout. So even if you only have one site marked on your web browser, it's a start to helping your patients."