American College of Physicians (ACP) medical informatics and telemedicine

The American College of Physicians (ACP) is the largest speciality society in the United States with over 83,000 Internal Medicine physician members. ACP seeks to be the foremost comprehensive education and information resource for all internists in support of its mission "to enhance the quality and effectiveness of health care." Medical Informatics and telemedicine is an integral part of the American College of Physicians' strategy to achieve its goals. ACP Medical Informatics Subcommittee and staff develop ACP policies and programs to improve clinical care and medical education through the use of Information Systems and new technologies for managing and integrating medical information and knowledge. This paper describes present and planned ACP informatics and telemedicine programs and projects focussing particularly on strategies to meet physicians' information needs incident to their patient care activities.