title: Online communication and support for cancer patients: a relationship-centric design framework.
abstract: Dealing with a cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment involves communication among clinicians, patients, families, friends and others affected by the illness. The hypothesis of this research is that an informatics system can effectively support the communication needs of cancer patients and their informal caregivers. Two design frameworks for online cancer communication are defined and compared. One is centered primarily on the users' interpersonal relationships, and the other is centered on the clinical data and cancer information. Five types of clinical and supportive relationships were identified and supported by in-depth interviews with cancer patients and their informal caregivers. Focusing the design of an online cancer communication system around the interpersonal relationships of patients and families may be an important step towards designing more effective paradigms for online cancer care and support.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Jacob B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Nancy M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Lorenzi
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007254:Information Science; D020407:Internet; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D009862:Online Systems; D012944:Social Support