New Directions for ACOG and the Internet

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Dr. Marshall Smith: “Good morning. This is Marshall Smith, and I’m here at the ACOG District VII Meeting. We’re honored to have with us today Dr. Benson Harer, who is the President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Dr. Harer, I’ve got a couple of questions for you, and I know we had talked about one of the things. ACOG is moving into disseminating more of its information internationally. We have a fairly large international audience, and I’d like to get some of that information to them so they know what’s available on the ACOG website. I’m going to ask you to tell us some of the special things that you’re doing there.”

Dr. Benson Harer: “Since ACOG’s core mission is to provide education regarding women’s health, we would like to expand the availability of this to other nations which don’t have as good resources. Currently, ACOG actually has six sovereign nations, which include Panama and Mexico, as part of its organization. And also Canada, of course. We’d like to expand into Central America and then also provide further information into Latin America, as well as the rest of the world. Most of our educational material has already been translated into Spanish, and the key thing is to be able to increase the availability so other people can access this information.”

Dr. Marshall Smith: “One of the big things is the dissemination of information that the Internet is bringing us, and I think in contrast to the past when we’ve been primarily teaching on a local area, this brings us so much ability to teach everywhere. You said the whole site has been translated into Spanish. Do you have any plans for other languages, in the future?”

Dr. Benson Harer: “Actually, not all of it has been translated, but we’re in the process of doing this. We are also making arrangements with the Japanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology to translate our materials for them, and we’re also exploring – with some other nations – the possibility of doing similar sort of material.

The other thing ACOG has initiated is we have developed a new International Educational Affiliate category to accommodate physicians worldwide. This should help to open up ACOG’s many educational materials to a global audience.”

Dr. Marshall Smith: “Is that going to be done through FIGO, or just ACOG?”

Dr. Benson Harer: “While we are cooperating very strongly with FIGO, we would actually do it directly through the College.”

Dr. Marshall Smith: “That’s very interesting, and especially since the second most common language on the Internet is now Spanish. This is a great movement toward the unification of health care over the entire world. Thank you so much for you time, and thank you for speaking with us about ACOG’s involvement and contributions to that unification. We look forward to seeing all of the ACOG educational materials published online in Spanish. We hope to have you back with us soon, and thank you for your time.”

Dr. Benson Harer: “Thank you.”

ACOG web site  http://www.acog.org   
OBGYN.net Latina  http://latina.obgyn.net/