INFORMATION, PLEASE

THE FAMILY PHYSICIAN is getting the cold shoulder from more than 60 million Americans who are turning instead to the Internet for medi-cal information, according to a recent survey by Louis Harris and Associates.

And, the survey reports, more than 90 percent of the information-seekers found what they were looking for. What were they seeking? According to the survey, the 10 top topics were depression, 19 percent; allergies or sinus, 16 percent; cancer, 15 percent; bipolar disorder, 14 percent; arthritis/rheumatism,10 percent; high blood pressure/hypertension, 10 percent; migraine, 9 percent; anxiety disorder, 9 percent; heart disease, 8 percent; and sleep disorders,8 percent.

It's All in the Numbers TEXAS, LOUISIANA AND OKLAHOMA LEAD-by a long shot-other states in the number of closures of Medicare-certified home health agencies between October 1, 1998, and March 19, 1999, according to a report compiled by the National Association of Home Care. Using data from 24 state licensing departments, Washington, D.C.-based NAHC reports that Texas lost 522 HHAs; Louisiana, 123; and Oklahoma, 120.

Rounding out the report's top 10 states were Missouri, 55; Florida, 49; Indiana, 49; Kansas, 40; New Mexico, 27; Connecticut, 25; and Arizona, 24. Altogether, 1,067 HHAs closed nationwide during that period, according to NAHC.

No Smoking, Please When the UNION AVENUE LEGEND PHARMACY in Bound Book, N.J., snuffed out tobacco products late last year, there was some concern that business would suffer. Would cigarette smokers boycott the pharmacy, which, after all, had carried tobacco products for most of its 75-year history? Owner and pharmacist James Beatty didn't know. All he knew, he told

America's Pharmacist, was that, as a health care provider, "tobacco didn't fit." Six months after banning the products, he has his answer: one customer complaint. The rest of the feedback has been positive, he says. And what's taken over the shelves formally inhabited by tobacco products? Stop-smoking products.