title: PatchWorx: connecting unhealthy and disabled children in an online community.
abstract: PatchWorx (PatchWorx, Inc., Menlo Park, CA) is a nonprofit Web-based community for young people facing illness and disability (http://www.patchworx.org). Teresa Middleton, founder and president of PatchWorx, Inc., believes the PatchWorx online community helps children develop the skills necessary for them to successfully cope with their illnesses. Through computer-mediated communication (CMC) via the PatchWorx Web site, children practice information seeking, problem solving and proactively finding social support.
authors.affiliation: Department of Language, Literature and Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA. hillan.julie@marshfieldclinic.org
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hillan
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D012944:Social Support