Invite your patients to visit America's HouseCall Network, a new World Wide Web site with health care information. If you've been giving them AAFP patient education materials, some of what they'll see on AHCN will look familiar.
That's because the Academy is a strategic partner in AHCN. Under "patient education," people can read AAFP's Health Notes From Your Family Doctor brochures and American Family Physician handouts.
The site, which premiered in May, already has about 90,000 "hits" a day--the tally of AHCN pages people are accessing.
A video news release promoting AHCN links the house calls of the past with the new network. It opens by saying, "In simpler times, house calls were the backbone of American medicine, and with the launch of America's HouseCall Network, doctors are making house calls again--this time, by computer."
NBC, ABC, CBS, and the Fox network have been airing all or part of the video news release. Within a recent nine-day period, an estimated 6,380,000 viewers saw the release in 27 cities across the country.
So the word is spreading about the new health information clearinghouse.
Eventually, the Academy will work with Orbis to produce online CME programs.
Orbis' AHCN partners include the Academy, US Pharmacopeia (which provides AHCN with information on drugs), United HealthCare (a national managed care organization), and the National Health Council (including its 106 member organizations).
To access AHCN, use the following address http://www.housecall.com and tip off your computer-savvy patients about this new site to visit on the Web. You also can get to AHCN from the Academy's new Web site.
"Computers and Family Practice" contents
FP Report, July 1996 headlines
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