Patient education materials off the Net
Patient education materials off the Net
An inexpensive resource
Looking for a way to save money on patient education materials? There are many consumer-oriented educational sheets on the Internet that cover diseases and conditions, their treatments, and information on medications.
"The Internet is a good tool to find the information just as you need it rather than ordering big supplies. Often you can direct a person to the Web site, and they can print it out on their own," says Joyce Flory, PhD, creative director for Alliances Interactive, an Internet consulting firm based in Alexandria, VA. (Flory is based in Chicago.)
A Web site will include information on whether users have permission to download information and distribute it to patients. "If it does not offer permission, there is usually an e-mail address listed. Send them a note to request permission. It is illegal to download information from the Web, take off the source, and claim it as your own," says Fran London, MS, RN, health education specialist at Phoenix (AZ) Children’s Hospital.
If people are asked to pay for individual downloads, that usually indicates that the material is not meant for distribution, says Flory.
When in doubt, search government sites for patient education materials, says London. "You can copy materials freely from government sources because your tax dollars have paid for their development," she explains.
Following are two sites London recommends that link to patient education materials:
• Medical Matrix. World Wide Web: http://www.slackinc.com/matrix/patient.html.
This site is a directory of patient education documents on the Internet. One link to Health Explorer provides access to more than 3,000 health-related documents that provide page length descriptions of diseases for patient education. For example, under eye disorders, there is a fact sheet on cataracts.
• The Doctors’ Page. World Wide Web: http://members.aol.com/DrsPage/pted.htm.
This is a general consumer health education site offering patient education sheets published by such organizations as The American Academy of Family Physicians based in Kansas City, MO. For example, Things to Know if You Have Asthma includes a description of the condition, the warning signs of asthma, the cause of asthma attacks, what medicines are used to treat asthma and how to use them, and a description of an asthma action plan. The bulleted information was four pages and granted permission to reproduce the material for nonprofit educational purposes.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.