[More power for patients: the patients' forum--a joint platform for the medical profession and patient self-help...

New ways of cooperation between doctors and representatives of patients are followed with the help of the patients' forum which was founded on the initiative of the German Medical Association. Members of the German Association 'Help for the Handicapped People', the 'Forum of the Chronic Ill and Handicapped People' of the 'Equal Charitable Organisation' (Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband), the 'German Association of Self-Help Groups' as well as representatives of the committees and the management of the German Medical Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians form the patients' forum. The major aim of this cooperation is to discuss the possibilities and the ways to improve the quality in health care. A direct participation of patients' representatives is for the moment planned in the evaluation of the quality of medical information for the lay public. In cooperation with the Agency for Quality in Medicine--a joint institution of the German Medical Association and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians--the quality of information on health care that is published in the internet should be examined. The patients' information service which was developed by the Agency for Quality in Medicine and is found under www.patienten-information.de is the basis for this examination.