At the invitation of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and with the NAPCRG Board’s blessing, STFM is inviting NAPCRG Annual Meeting attendees to share your conference handouts by posting them on its Family Medicine Digital Resources Library (FMDRL).

In late 2004, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine was awarded a grant by the National Library of Medicine to develop FMDRL. The mission of FMDRL is to support and enhance the sharing and collaborative development of educational resources among family medicine educators through a digital library that will include resources for all levels of family medicine education.

There is no charge to post or view materials in FMDRL.

NAPCRG members benefit by having your presentation materials distributed to an audience beyond NAPCRG members, and, in turn, offers you access to an educational resource broader than primary care research. NAPCRG original research handouts would be a particularly welcomed addition to FMDRL and would add a richness to the academic materials on the site. By STFM and NAPCRG working together, we can develop a stronger repository of curricular materials than we could otherwise do working independently.

FMDRL Includes:
• Conference Presentations/Handouts
• PowerPoint Lectures
• Learning Modules for All Levels of Learners
• Digital images, Audio and Video Files
• Standardized Patient Cases
• Recommended Web Sites and PDA Programs
• Other Curricular Materials

FMDRL Features:
• Content for all levels of family medicine education.
• Works-in-Progress section.
• Expert Peer Review. Materials will be peer reviewed and archived with user-friendly search functionality.
• Editorial and administrative oversight for FMDRL will be provided by a steering committee of educators, informaticists, researchers, and librarians.
• Developed with an open standards-based infrastructure, permitting interaction with other digital libraries, such as the Health Education Assets Library.

Steering Committee:
Jacob Reider, MD, Albany Medical College, chair
Richard Usatine, MD, University of Texas HSC at San Antonio, FMDRL editor in chief
Helen Baker, PhD, MBA, West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Roger Sherwood, CAE, STFM executive director, principal investigator
Enid Geyer, MLS, Albany Medical College
Mary Moore, PhD, University of Texas HSC at San Antonio
Traci Nolte, STFM communications director

You find the uploading of conference materials to be quite simple: just click on the “upload” tab, and you’ll be asked to register or log in, then follow quick, step-by-step instructions.

Visit the FMDRL Web site at www.fmdrl.org to upload your conference presentation materials, learn more about this valuable resource, and sign up to serve as a content reviewer for FMDRL if you are interested.

For more information on the FMDRL or to find out how you can get involved, contact FMDRL staff liaison, Traci Nolte, at tnolte@stfm.org.

I encourage you to visit this resource and upload your presentation handouts today.

Regards,

Perry Dickinson, MD

To view handouts from the 2003 or 2004 meetings, click here.

If you encounter any problems or have questions please contact Bruce Phillips, bphillip@stfm.org, 1-800-274-2237, ext 5405.