Re: OA benefits associations & is easy too

["Peter Banks" <pbanks@diabetes.org>]

Dear Ms. Waite:

You may not know that I am also publisher of 3 magazines for
patients--Diabetes Forecast, the leading diabetes magazine in the world;
Taking Extra Care of Your Diabetes, distributed in CVS pharmacies; and
Diabetes Forecast en Espanol. Together, these magazines have a combined
circulation of about 1.7 million.

It is hardly accurate or fair, therefore, to accuse me of trying to
perpetuate the days of "keeping patients in the dark." The American
Diabetes Association, like other voluntary health associations, is at the
forefront of making patients informed members of the treatment team. I do
not think any organization has done more to empower patients.

In addition to our consumer publications, more than 95% of ADA's original
research articles are freely available. Two publications, Clinical
Diabetes and DOC News, are entirely open access.

My point is and never has been to withhold any information from patients.
It is rather to sustain a financially sustainable system that delivers the
most information possible to patients and their doctors. Those like me who
question the wisdom of extreme Open Access solution are in no way trying
to "keep patients in the dark"; we are rather trying to ensure that the
flow of credible, quality information continues.

And, yes, please send that recipe!

Peter Banks
Publisher
American Diabetes Association
Email: pbanks@diabetes.org

>>> waite@email.unc.edu 07/24/05 6:19 PM >>>
Mr. Banks,

I must agree with Mr. Milliner. I am a librarian in an academic health
sciences library. I can assure you that the general public is very
interested in their own or their family member's health. They come to us
for the very literature you think that they cannot possibly understand.  
Some people cannot , but a great many can. At the very least they could
pick up on questions to pose to their physicians.  There have been many
articles written of late, in very prestigious journals, about the
importance of the well informed patient as a member of his or her health
care team. The days of keeping the patient in the dark are long gone.

Would you like a recipe for a low fat, sugar free cookie?

Marjory Waite