Medical information from Bangkok conference: Clinical Care Options Site.

Patients can review some of the best overall medical reporting from the XV International Conference on AIDS (Bangkok, Thailand, July 11-16, 2004) at the Clinical Care Options site, http://www.clinicaloptions.com/hiv/This material is written primarily for medical professionals but it is freely available to anyone. Patients can skip around to find the information they need.

For example, try "Virtual Presentations: IAC Update 2004," http://www.clinicaloptions.com/hiv/vp/iac2004/ (you will need to register for the site first, but registration is free). Scroll down and click "LAUNCH," for either "Part 1: Antiretroviral Therapy: Current Regimens, Novel Strategies, Resistance, and New Agents," or for "Part II: Pharmacology, Metabolic Complications, Hepatitis Coinfection, and Opportunistic Diseases." Then click "Begin Module" (which should appear in a new window). You will need to click again on the image on the right-hand side of the window. Then slides should start to display, with an audio explanation for most of them. Note that you do not need to watch the whole program, but can start anywhere by selecting the slide you want by name, in the margin on the left.

There is also a search box on every page.

A good dial-up Internet connection works quite well for these slide and audio presentations, although a high-speed connection may avoid some delays. You do not need to have PowerPoint software to use these modules and see the slides displayed. (They use Macromedia Flash, and work on almost all common browsers without the need to download any additional software.) The site also allows instructors to download PowerPoint slides to customize and use in their own lectures, and of course PowerPoint software is required for doing this.