New patient interaction formulas in Spanish and Catalan: a case for forumclinic.

On February of 2007, forumclinic (www.forumclinic.org) was launched. This free, first of its kind, collection of Evidence-Based Medicine chronic disease monograph resources, is targeted for Spanish and Catalan-speaking patients. Information is available both online (i.e., forums) and offline (i.e., DVDs) and is culturally sensitive to the target population. Forumclinic has cantered on active patient engagement through the use of disease-specialist moderated forms. Both the Health on the Net Foundation and the Medical Doctors College of Barcelona have accredited forumclinic as a quality, unbiased, health site that is based on the WHO premise of Social Determinants of Health - increased health education and interaction leads to better health. This descriptive paper will introduce forumclinic and describe the patient/user response to date.