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Free new Web site enhances physician learning, patient education
OrthoSuperSite.com integrates articles from four orthopedic print publications and adds new features — daily updates and educational videos.
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This month I want to share with you an exciting development at Orthopedics Today — the launch of our new Web site — OrthoSuperSite.com — on February 23. This comprehensive Web site integrates information from Orthopedics Today, Orthopaedics Today International, the monthly publication Orthopedics and The Journal of Knee Surgery. When you search a topic on the new Web site, you’ll retrieve articles or citations from all four publications.
The new Web site offers several additional features too — including daily updates — to keep you ahead of important developments. So it delivers more than the sum of the parts from existing print publications. We hope you’ll find that this new tool can help busy practitioners sort through the daily information glut more easily. It can also help you educate patients better and below I offer some examples from my own experience just this month.
When I became Chief Medical Editor at Orthopedics Today three years ago I knew the Internet held great opportunity for our publication. In that short time we have created a quality Web site that I believe can sharpen the way you learn and communicate.
At the most basic level the Internet already has changed the way I handle information for the better. I used to archive all my printed journals, for example, and took pride in having them bound and displayed on the shelves in my home and office. But I never use those paperbound issues anymore. In fact, I could not even give them away in this country except as replacements for certain issues gone missing from medical libraries. Instead, I surf the Internet to find the references I need far more quickly.
Powerful search ability
The new OrthoSuperSite brings that powerful search ability to all of SLACK Incorporated’s recent orthopedic-related information. Can you imagine the expanded possibilities, not only for the orthopedic surgeon but also for house staff and medical students, our allies in medical administration, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical therapists, rheumatologists, and orthopedic industry professionals? Remarkably, nearly all the content is free.
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Unlike paper publications, the Internet has no space constraints, so we’ll be able to include more research references and other extra material on the new Web site — including downloadable videos. Yet, we do not expect our readers to stop reading their print publications. Rather, we expect a lot of dual usage. Many of our readers will continue to prefer the convenience and portability of the familiar paper-based format for all of our widely read publications. Others will want to use our new Web site more and more as they learn all that it offers and how easily they can pinpoint a wealth of germane information — articles and research they may have read or may not know about. That will likely expand use of our resources overall.
Other features — unavailable to print subscribers — also will draw in users. For example, OrthoSuperSite.com will include a “CME Center” for easy access to available CME credits, special reports, single-topic monographs and better two-way communication. I’ve also enjoyed communicating with you electronically (as well as by letter), and our new Web site makes that easier.
Let me give you three examples of everyday, practical uses I found just this past week for the site in connection with patient education. One patient came to me seeking a third opinion on which PCL reconstruction she should have. After giving her my opinion, I referred her to our Web site to read the two-part round table on PCL reconstruction. Another patient wanted more information on preventing DJD in his knee by having an ACL reconstruction. I referred him to the excellent two-part round table on this topic. A third patient wanted to know more about particulate wear with a joint replacement, so I referred him to an interview on this topic done last year.
I’m still discovering new ways for our Internet-based information to help enrich the way I access information. This month a hospital administrator contacted me for suggestions on limiting losses on spinal implants being done in his institution. I simply referred him to an excellent roundtable with positive suggestions his hospital might incorporate into their orthopedic department. I was happy to help. And being able to provide a specific reference probably saved us both a 30-minute conversation. Plus, he’ll have everything in writing for easy reference.
And a reporter recently asked me for an interview on a topic I had written a column on earlier. I simply referred her to the Web site to retrieve the information. She extracted a few quotes from it, saving us both a lot of time.
These are just a few ways I used the Web site this past month, in addition to retrieving articles on topics that interested me. No doubt the Internet offers near-limitless opportunities.
Easy-to-use tool
For those with Internet connections — and they are now everywhere from hotel rooms, airports, coffee shops, offices, hospitals, homes and phones — I encourage you to explore our easy-to-use tool. It offers practical, timely support information on orthopedic surgery that will help you to deliver quality care, enhance patient education and adapt to the changing economic practice environment.
Here are a few search suggestions from Orthopedics Today to get you started:
- Reconstructing the PCL: tips and techniques (December 2004) — Panelists consider the pros, cons of various techniques, including tibial inlay, transtibial tunnel, double bundle, single bundle and posterior tibial inlay.
- Reimbursements for spine surgical implants a growing problem (May 2004) — Surgeons talk about the issue in a round table moderated by Chief Medical Editor Douglas W. Jackson, MD.
- Controversy continues about the impact of ACL reconstruction, postop rehab (September 2004) — In part II of this round table, participants discuss the data about ACL reconstruction, degenerative bone disease.