Delivering Health Care Information Over the Internet

    SAN DIEGO, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Internet is changing the practice
 of medicine in unanticipated ways.  Last year, more than 24 million adults
 used the Internet for health care, to learn about wellness and disease
 information, to purchase prescriptions, to find a physician.  Every day, more
 consumers turn to the Web, while more and more medical sites are launched.
     To address the ethical questions that arise with this proliferation of
 information, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Foundation is
 presenting a seminar, "Health Care Delivery Over the Internet," at the 2000
 American Society of Clinical Pathologists/College of American Pathologists
 Joint Annual Meeting, on Tuesday, October 17, at the San Diego Convention
 Center.  The program features five experts who will discuss the ethical issues
 surrounding the delivery of health care information over the Internet.
     "This program will help provide information about how pathologists can
 effectively respond to Internet-educated patients and their questions about
 health care issues," said Jared N. Schwartz, MD, PhD, president of the CAP
 Foundation Board of Directors.  "In the new information-based world of health
 care delivery, pathologists, as medical information specialists, must develop
 opportunities to help patients and clinicians manage the wealth of information
 available."
     Panelist George D. Lundberg, MD, is editor in chief of Medscape, the
 world's leading Internet site for health and medical information.  He is the
 founding editor in chief of both Medscape General Medicine and CBS
 HealthWatch.com.  From 1982 to 1999, Dr. Lundberg was editor in chief,
 Scientific Information and Multimedia, at the American Medical Association,
 where he had editorial responsibility for 39 medical journals, American
 Medical News, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and various
 Internet products.
     Panelist Alan Greene, MD, is a pediatrician who serves as chief medical
 officer of adam.com, a health information library site, and is the co-founder
 of DrGreene.com.  On his DrGreene.com Web site, he answers pediatric questions
 submitted by readers from all over the world.  The site receives more than two
 million hits per month from parents, students, and medical professionals. Dr.
 Greene is on the clinical faculty at the Stanford University School of
 Medicine and is a founding member of Hi-Ethics (Health Internet Ethics), a
 coalition of the most widely used health Internet sites, established to
 further the highest ethical standards.
     Henry Travers, MD, a practicing pathologist from Sioux Falls, S.D., uses
 telemedicine in his practice and will address the ethical challenges
 pathologists must face as they have increased opportunity for direct
 communication with their patients.
     Jack R. Bierig, JD, who regularly counsels practicing physicians on a
 variety of subjects, will address the implications of licensure issues as
 expertise is shared across state and national borders.
     Moderating the discussion will be Myra J. Christopher of the Midwest
 Bioethics Center in Kansas City, Mo., a community-based ethics center founded
 in 1984 to integrate ethical considerations into health care decision-making.
 Ms. Christopher has been  executive director of the center since 1985.  She
 has consulted on health care policy to health care delivery corporations,
 regulators, accrediting organizations, and national and state legislators.
     The College of American Pathologists is a medical society serving nearly
 16,000 physician members and the laboratory community throughout the world.
 It is the world's largest association composed exclusively of pathologists and
 is widely considered the leader in laboratory quality assurance.  The CAP is
 an advocate for high quality and cost-effective patient care.
     The mission of the College of American Pathologists Foundation is to
 provide leadership and resources to assure continuing excellence in the
 science, art, and practice of pathology by identifying critical issues that
 impact pathology and the public, supporting conferences and research to
 address those issues, and disseminating this information to pathologists and
 the public.
     The American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), founded in 1922, is
 the largest medical laboratory organization, with more than 75,000 members.
 It represents the entire medical laboratory team-pathologists, medical
 technologists, and all other medical laboratory professionals.  As the primary
 provider of continuing education for pathologists and other medical laboratory
 personnel, the ASCP enhances the quality of the profession through
 comprehensive educational programs and materials.
 
 

SOURCE  College of American Pathologists Foundation