The Mayo Clinic has announced it will be making its patient education resources available to small medical practices within the country through a formal agreement with drchono, a Mountain View, Calif.-based electronic health record (EHR) company.

The materials, which include pamphlets, DVDs, will be converted to electronic formats for physicians to give to their patients. According to Mayo, providers will pay drchrono for access. The materials, Mayo says, aim to help patients understand medical tests, surgical procedures, diseases and conditions, self-care, preventive health and wellness. They are geared to patients that have specific needs.

The resources, according to Mayo, go through a rigorous process before being published. They aren’t just handed out to patients, but the physician typically develops a clinical plan for it should be used. An entire care team, including specialists, provides additional insight to the resource.

"We consider it a priority to invest time and energy to be certain these patient education materials stand up to the high level of integrity that Mayo Clinic stands for. Physicians distributing these educational documents and videos to their patients via drchrono can be confident they contain content that will assist them in their delivery of clinical care,” Steven Smith, M.D. medical director, patient education, Mayo Clinic, said in a statement.

drchrono, which was listed as one of the up-and-comers by Healthcare Informatics in the Healthcare Informatics 100 June issue, will give access to the Mayo Clinic content in real time through iPads, iPhones and the internet.