Pediatric Informatics: Computer Applications in Child Health (Health ...

24 Information Management by Patients and Parents in Health and Disease 323
24.3 Other ICT Tools and Enhancement of Patient Care
24.3.1 Practice Websites
Practice Websites are Internet-based collections of information that are related to a
physician, an office or a practitioner group. Over time, Websites have become simpler
and faster to create and maintain and can be customized by practitioners to include
practice information, current health news, and seasonal information for patients. To
standardize this process, a consortium of stakeholders has been formed to provide
electronic services, including online tools to facilitate practitioner Website creation
and maintenance. The Medem (MEDical EMpowerment) consortium, consisting of
more than 80,000 physicians, 47 specialty and state medical societies, a number of
health systems, health plans, patient advocacy groups, professional liability carriers,
provides a single Web entry point for patients to their physician’s Website and online
patient information libraries. 14 Practice Websites are branded by practice name and
the professional society to which the provider a member (Fig. 24.2).
Practitioners often provide self-written or collected information for patients in
the form of pamphlets with frequently asked questions and answers about normal
and abnormal conditions. Professional medical societies (such as the AAP) sell prepared
materials for patients and families as a value-added resource for a practice 15
to educate families and to market practices. Electronic versions of pamphlets have
advantages of easy creation, updating and dissemination by e-mail, Web and fax,
Fig. 24.2 Example of a pediatric practice Website (Vendor: Medem. Practice of Mark
M. Simonian MD)