Founded in March 2000, wired.MD, hosts a Website that provides information about products that librarians, health care providers, and educators can use to deliver reliable health care information to consumers and patients in an effective and cost-efficient manner. The Website provides information about “streaMed” educational videos on more than 365 consumer health topics, some of which are in 8 languages (English, Spanish, Polish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Russian).

The suite of streaMed products delivers consumer health education videos, handouts, and peer-reviewed health Websites to hospitals, clinics, private practices, libraries and resource centers, and patients' homes. The wired.MD Website includes examples of some of the videos available, along with a list of covered health topics and text handouts (English and Spanish titles). The Website also includes a “customer map” that provides users with the names and locations of institutions that have purchased the products in both the United States and abroad.

The content for the wired.MD videos and handouts is derived from materials published by Mosby Publishing, the parent company of Harcourt Health Sciences, and Ferri's Patient Teaching Guides. Furthermore, much of the content is reviewed by physicians who are experts in a variety of specialties, and the information can be applied to a diverse patient population. The target audience for the products is adult consumers of health care information, including patients and family members.

Health education videos—which include the most common diagnoses, treatment plans, and procedures—are now available for the following specialties: allergy; cardiology; dermatology; eyes, ear, nose, and throat; emergency medicine; endocrinology; gastroenterology; genitourinary and renal; geriatrics; hematology and oncology; neurology; orthopedics and rheumatology; pediatrics; psychology; pulmonology; and women's health care. A package is available that is not specialty specific and includes videos in eight languages.

The major features of the Website that would interest librarians or health care providers are the video examples, video and text handout lists, case studies, and the patient portal.

The video examples include titles such as Laceration and Wound Care, Insulin and Diabetes, Pregnancy after 35, Metered-dose Inhaler, and Spinal Tap. Each video is narrow in focus and averages six minutes and thirty seconds in length. Excellent animations and illustrations are interspersed throughout the videos, making them engaging and easy to follow. Lists of video topics and text handouts accompany the videos. The video list includes primary care titles, specialty packages, and multilingual packages

The handout list covers both English and Spanish titles, arranged alphabetically by the name of the condition or procedure.

The case studies include comments from health educators and physicians about how their organizations have used streaMed products. The case studies will be invaluable to those who want more information about how the products can be used in real-life situations to improve patient care and reduce costs by more efficiently delivering patient education.

Patients can be directed to the Patient Site <http://patients.wired.md> to enter an eight-digit “Information Prescription” code to access information pertaining to a specific condition or procedure. The Patient Site would be accessed through an organization's intranet or Website, with the handouts and Information Prescriptions branded with an organization's specific logo and Website address (e.g., http://www.yoursite.com/education/). This approach enables health care providers to deliver reliable health information to patients while increasing the visibility of an organization's Website.

The Patient Site also offers consumers several ways in which to search for health information: by keyword, body part, specialty, video, or handout titles and health Websites. A search for the topic “asthma,” for example, allows users to choose from a number of options related to that health topic, including:

• Watch a video.
• Read a handout.
• Access the Information Prescription.
• View an animation of the lungs.
• Email a question to the health care provider.
• Complete a survey on the quality of care received.
• Conduct a new search.

The wired.MD Website is easy to navigate, and the video examples are easy to view. The only challenge users might face is being presented with so much information about each streaMed product. Nevertheless, the Website does provide a helpful list of frequently asked questions to assist users with selecting the products that would best meet the needs of their organizations.

The main advantage of the Web-based video format is that health information can be delivered to consumers when, where, and how they need it. Consumers can access the videos from any computer connected to the Internet, along with the accompanying handouts.

Furthermore, the videos offer a “full-circle solution,” meaning that they take patients from preparation for a doctor's visit or a surgical procedure to more detailed information on a condition or procedure that can be explained by providers during office visits.

Finally, patients can take the educational message home in the form of text handouts and an Information Prescription customized to their needs.

Because the patient education solutions are customized to the needs of organizations with a variety of technology infrastructures, the pricing models become complicated. The best approach is to speak to a company account executive to determine which options suit the needs and budget of a specific organization.

Because wired.MD provides a Web-based patient education solution, the streaMed products are accessed through an organization's network using an Internet connection. The client-side software for each product must be installed on each computer or a centralized server by the organization's network administrator. Following installation, wired.MD freely provides training and support, and training is available at night and on weekends to accommodate an organization's scheduling requirements. The wired.MD Website includes a link to detailed information about technical requirements, including streaMed:

• implementation
• workstation requirements
• patient portal workstation and access requirements
• content storage requirements

The Clinical Advisory Board, consisting of seventy physicians, reviews all content and updates approximately thirty to forty health topics each year.

The streaMed videos are designed with the patient or consumer in mind for the delivery of reliable health care information to a diverse patient population, regardless of literacy or educational levels, native language, or technology accessibility. The videos could be compared to the interactive tutorials and surgery videos available via the MedlinePlus Website, a site that provides trusted health information maintained by the National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

A major strength of the streaMed videos is their granularity or narrow focus on a specific condition or procedure, with each video averaging six minutes and thirty seconds in length. The MedlinePlus surgery videos, however, are each one hour in length and offer a level of detail that may not capture and sustain the attention of some users. The strength of both the MedlinePlus and streaMed videos is that they contain excellent animations and illustrations.

The MedlinePlus interactive tutorials—animated slides explaining a procedure or condition in easy-to-read language—provide an advantage to users who like to move easily from one section of the tutorial to another without being tied to a linear progression. Although the streaMed videos can be paused and restarted, users cannot easily access a specific topic covered in a video.

The streaMed products offer valuable consumer health information to patients at the point of care and beyond. The products also relieve providers of repetitive educational explanations, making consultations with patients more productive and focused on each patient's specific concerns.

Health sciences and consumer health librarians as well as health care providers could benefit from using the wired.MD resources in a variety of settings. Of course, the main benefit will be for patients or consumers who become empowered to make more informed decisions, in consultation with their health care providers, about the best health care options available to them.