Dealing with a cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment involves communication among clinicians, patients, families, friends and others affected by the illness. The hypothesis for this research is that an informatics system can effectively support the communication needs of cancer patients and their formal and informal caregivers. How can an online communication system be made accessible and desirable for all of the different players involved in the patients care and support? The initial design of a novel informatics-based system for cancer communication was conducted in three phases (The Discovering Phase, The Developing Phase and The Testing Phase). Five types of clinical and supportive relationships were identified and supported by in-depth interviews with cancer patients and their informal caregivers. A prototype web-based communication system was created with an emphasis on the interpersonal relationships between patients, families, and clinicians. The system was used over the course of two months by a group of clinicians and head and neck cancer patients in the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. A case study is presented of one patients detailed feedback and use of the system with the clinicians and with family and friends. A larger study of the systems effect on the clinical and social outcomes will be conducted during the PhD phase of this research. The current phase of this research concludes with the initial user feedback and iterative design of the system prototype.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12042005-220610 |
| Date | 14 December 2005 |
| Creators | Weiss, Jacob Berner |
| Contributors | Barbara Murphy, Dario Giuse, Nancy Lorenzi |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-12042005-220610/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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