Supporting the information management needs of breast cancer patients

Join our studies!

At the moment, we are looking for people to join two studies:

 

Is it hard to manage information during cancer care?
Shape the design of helpful tools by completing a brief online survey!"

If you have ever been diagnosed with cancer, please help us improve information management during cancer care by taking an anonymous, 5-10 minute survey. Your responses to the survey will help us to better understand the importance and difficulty of managing information during cancer care. Our University of Washington research team is developing new technology to help cancer patients, and your survey responses will ensure that we target the most important and challenging problems faced by cancer patients.

Read more and take the anonymous survey at:
http://tinyurl.com/ManageCancer

Read more about our research at:
http://healthweaver.org

Please tell others about this survey.

Thanks,

Professor Wanda Pratt, Ph.D.
School of Medicine
Information School
University of Washington

 

 

Managing Health Information during Cancer Care with Innovative Technology

We are recruiting breast cancer patients for a study of new technologies for supporting personal health information management.

What?

Our research team invites patients to test an information management tool called HealthWeaver to manage information during cancer care. The goal of our research is to support people receiving cancer care by developing technology that makes it easier for patients to find, store, organize, or use information related to their care.

Why?

Patients work hard during cancer care to communicate with multiple clinicians, manage insurance, coordinate cancer care services, and monitor their evolving health status. These tasks require patients (sometimes together with their family and friends) to find, store, organize, and use health information from multiple sources. Moreover, patients must integrate health information into the ways they organize and remember other personal information (e.g., scheduling, taking notes). We have developed HealthWeaver, an information management tool designed to help patients to integrate various information management activities that take place during the cancer experience.

How?

We are conducting a 6 week study to evaluate the usefulness of HealthWeaver to help patients manage information during cancer care. Individuals who enroll in this study will be asked to do these activities:

  • Complete a set of surveys, once at the beginning and once at the end of the study
  • Two home visits, each comprised of an interview and information inventory
  • One clinic observation in which we accompany the participant to a clinic appointment
  • Two telephone interviews to ‘check in’ between other study activities
  • Use HealthWeaver in daily life for four weeks to manage care-related information

Participants will receive $125 as a thank you for participating in this study.

Who?

Patients are eligible for the study if they are at least 18 years old, have a diagnosis of breast cancer, and are currently undergoing treatment.

If you wish to enroll or have further questions about this study, please contact: Dr. Wanda Pratt's team through email (info-study@u.washington.edu)* or phone (206-659-1153). If you have questions about your rights as a subject, please call the University of Washington Human Subjects Division at 206-543-0098.

* Note that we cannot assure the confidentiality of email.

University of Washington - Information School - Biomedical and Health Informatics
(c) 2010 iMed