Philadelphia-based medical publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins has posted free physician and patient advisories about Anthrax for primary care physicians and their patients on its primary care/internal medicine website (www.LWWmedicine.com).

The information is posted as an online update to Primary Care Medicine, a text for internists and family doctors.

"As providers of first-contact personal care, we primary care physicians face two challenges: an avalanche of urgent inquiries for information, testing, and antibiotics from concerned but uninfected patients, and early recognition and accurate diagnosis and treatment of those who are infected," said Allan Goroll, MD, FACP, Editor-in-Chief of Primary Care Medicine. "The physician and patient advisories are written specifically to help the primary care community cope with these difficult yet important responsibilities."

The clinician advisory provides in practical fashion the best available information on early recognition, testing, and treatment, and includes links to pertinent medical references. It comes with a companion patient advisory to answer the queries of patients who call or come in to the office. The patient advisory is written in Q & A format for easy use and understanding.

The patient advisory can be customized and shared with patients as part of an office visit or can be sent to patients who request information.

The patient and physician advisories are part of the regular online updates for subscribers to LWWmedicine.com, but in light of current Anthrax terrorism, this advisory will be available without charge to anyone who visits the website. It will be updated as frequently as necessary.

If your organization is interested in having Goroll as a speaker, contact Connie Hofmann at (215)521-8511 for details.

Allan Goroll, MD, FACP, is a leading medical educator and advocate, senior primary care internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass., and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is Past President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Governor-Elect of the American College of Physicians, Massachusetts.