Medical associations a major Web presence

It's little surprise that medical associations around the world are well represented on the Web, given that health and medicine have been dominant subjects on it since day one.

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The CMA's own CMA.CA site (www .cma.ca), which was one of the first presences by a medical association on the Web (1995), was relaunched in October. The new site delivers enhanced services to members and the public, and is now one of Canada's largest sources of bilingual health and medical information on the Net.

But the CMA is far from alone. The American Medical Association site (www.ama-assn.org) has separate areas for physicians and medical students, for other health professionals and for patients. It also features a Doctor Finder service for patients.

Across the pond, the British Medical Association site, BMA Online (www.bma.org.uk), not only offers the usual member services and public resources but also provides specific sections for residents of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Going “down under” provides access to the medical associations of Australia (www.ama.com.au) and New Zealand (www.nzma.org.nz). A quick read of documents on the Australian site shows how different we really are. Consider this quotation that criticizes, in a very Australian way, a government report: “Preliminary analysis shows that the Department's report does not pass the sniff test. In fact, it is so on the nose that even an Optimists' Society funded by the Minister would have trouble making a positive remark.”

Many other smaller associations are also developing a presence. The Malaysian (www.mma.org.my), Hungarian (www.mok.hu), Norwegian (www .legeforeningen.no) and Chilean (www.colegiomedico.cl) medical associations are just a few of the many now found in cyberspace.

Finally, there are the international organizations like the World Medical Association (www.wma.net) and Commonwealth Medical Association (www .commedas.org). For a list of medical associations around the planet click over to the World Medical Association's members' page (www.wma.net/e/membership/membershipindex.html). It contains a wealth of information and some surprises. For instance, even the Vatican has a medical association, Associazione Medica del Vaticano.