Effective promotion of your practice is as close as the brochures on arthritis, breast cancer, diabetes and other topics displayed in your waiting room or the handout on childhood vaccines that you give to parents. Patient education is not only an important service to your patients, it's one of the best forms of publicity for your practice. So make sure you have plenty of good materials on hand to send home with your patients and to share with the community.

• Take advantage of the many sources for patient handouts, brochures and videos. Look for free materials in medical journals and on the Internet. Check out the brochures, videos and CD-ROM materials that can be purchased from the AAFP and many commercial sources.

• Customize all patient education materials with your practice's name and phone number. Patients may pass these materials along to family and friends with similar conditions.

• Donate patient education materials to the local library or community center.

• Offer to provide selected patient education materials to local schools. Select materials appropriate for the students, avoiding controversial topics, such as teen contraception.