Web site promotes venue for cancer patients
Opportunity for support and dialogue always available
Caring Voices is a web site set up to promote communication among cancer survivors, cancer patients, and also between patients and providers.
On this site, there are discussion boards where people post messages to discuss such topics as living with cancer and survivorship issues. Also featured are live chats. There are drop-in chats where people can come anytime and find others who are online. There are scheduled chats, which are moderated sessions, and also educational chats where a clinician, such as a dietitian, will answer questions. These chats are generic, says David Wiljer, PhD, director of Knowledge Management and Innovation Oncology Education/Radiation Medicine Program at Princess Margaret Hospital.
A section for posting questions for physicians also is available. It is not a clinical care tool but is designed for more generic questions, explains Wiljer.
There also is a feature that will match up people for a more personal support experience. To participate in this personal matching service, people fill out a survey with a multitude of questions, such as whether they wish to interact with someone like themselves or at a different point of care. There are even questions about sexual preference, so a lesbian woman with breast cancer can communicate with another lesbian woman with breast cancer if she chooses.
Currently, there are three communities on Caring Voices. One is designed for the general community, a second for breast cancer patients, and a third for those with gynecological cancer.
Caring Voices is a web site set up to promote communication among cancer survivors, cancer patients, and also between patients and providers.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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