APA’s 2000 annual meeting represents the state of the art in psychiatric practice and research, so it is fitting that APA members attending the meeting will be pioneers along with Medem in building a different kind of relationship with patients on the World Wide Web.

APA members are invited to visit the Medem booth in APA’s Resource Center and sign up for their own Web site under a new member benefit, known as "Your Practice Online." Medem representatives will walk members through the simple, straightforward registration process, which takes about 20 minutes.

Here are some of the most common questions that APA members have asked about the new Internet program.

A. Almost 80 percent of patients are looking for medical information on the Web, and what they find out on that information frontier can influence your relationship with them. Your Medem site is a natural place for your patients to start looking for answers, and you can be confident they will find it a rich source of credible, authoritative information because you choose what content to feature.

Having a Web site can also help introduce your practice to people actively seeking advice and treatment. Medem staff will show you how to register your site with search engines like Yahoo!, and when the Medem consumer health information site debuts this summer, patients in your area who use the "physician finder" service will automatically pull up your site.

A. Here’s how you can register for your Web site at the annual meeting:

1. At the Medem booth, you will get on the Web and go to <www.yourpractice
online.com>. When you sign up for the service, you will first create a login name and password. You will use them to enter the Site Builder Wizard, which will lead you through the site-creation process. The process is easy—there’s no heavy technical jargon to confuse you.

2. You will tell Site Builder Wizard whether you are building a group or solo practice site and enter your practice’s name.

3. Choose a Web address ("URL"), an important part of the process. Your address will look something like "http://www. YOURPRACTICENAMEHERE.
medem.com."

4. After you’ve picked a URL, you can choose how your Web site will look. Anytime you want to change the style of your site, whether it’s in the next five minutes, five months, or five years, you can choose from any of the available layouts and colors with the click of a button.

5. Now you’re ready to create some basic parts of your new site—a cv page for each doctor, an online map to your office, a list of what specialties are covered in your practice—and more, if you like. Medem staff will even take your digital photo to post on your new site.

6. The Site Builder Wizard lets you add different sorts of information to your site. You can choose a news feed that carries the latest information from up to three specialties, a feature that encourages your patients to visit your Web site often. You can select credentialed health information from Medem’s library to feature on your site. When you’re ready, Medem can also help you post your own patient information brochures and announcements about your practice.