Thomas Masterson, MD and Benjamin Dickens, PhD, both of Northern Virginia, started planning a web travel solution 3 years ago. In the old model, patients would ask their social worker to help them make travel plans weeks in advance. In the new web model, people receiving dialysis could browse the country and initiate plans on their own. Drs. Masterson and Dickens would have to wait another year for web mapping technology to catch up with them. DialysisFinder.com was launched two years ago with only a postcard mailing for fanfare against a demographic of advanced age, other health problems, and general lack of web access. With more than a 2000 visitors a month, DialysisFinder has defied its demographic and is a continuing its success by word of mouth (AltaVista finds 34 pages of links to DialysisFinder).

Where’s the money? …out of old technology print media products for the time being. International Medical Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Medical News Service, produces the 2001 Day-by-Day Dialysis Calendar, a dialysis goal-setting educational and motivational day planner ($15.95 at Amazon.com). Old economy paper products pay the bills for the web service. The lack of a “revenue model” has not deterred Dr. Masterson’s enthusiasm for web solutions to healthcare problems. What’s on the horizon for Spring 2001… DiabetesFinder.com – your diabetes resource locator on the web.