These days doctors can outfit their offices from the comfort of a computer terminal because medical cyberstores are multiplying to serve the Canadian market for medical equipment. American companies still dominate this area, but a solid list of Canadian sites is now run by Yahoo (ca.yahoo.com/regional/countries/canada/business_and_economy/companies/health/medical_equipment/).
Blacklock Medical Products (www.blacklock.com) of Delta, BC, markets medical-grade adhesives and phototherapy equipment, while Canadian Medical Products (www.canmedprod.com) in Scarborough, Ont., offers a range of products that includes pain-management stimulator units and complementary accessories such as ultrasound gel.
Crossing the border, you can surf to Hospital Associates (www.mediquip.net) in Anaheim, California, and order everything from a cast-cutting saw to crutches. Medical EquipNet (www.solumed.com), another online sales site, also lets you sell used equipment.
When it is time to buy office supplies, you can choose between big-name suppliers such as Office Max (www.officemax.com) or Staples (staples.com) and smaller independent companies like Camcosupplies.com (www.camcosupplies.com).
With all this Web surfing, your computer will be an essential item. The Apple Store (store.apple.com) has been selling a complete line of Macintosh computers online for years, as has Dell Computer (www.dell.com) and others like IBM (commerce.www.ibm.com).
Finally, several companies specifically market software for doctors' offices. These include Avio Corp. (www.avio.com), which provides advanced information technology for physician practice management, and MedicaLogic (www.medicalogic.com), which offers an electronic patient-record system. MedServe Link (www.medservelink.com) markets its business management software to doctors, while Sunquest Information Systems (www.sunquest.com) has a software suite aimed at hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies. Pointshare (www.pointshare.com) develops and manages medical intranet services.
With all these online choices, doctors wanting to outfit a new practice may never have to step outside the door again to go shopping.