title: Challenges of social networking technologies for cancer care and social support.
abstract: Online communities and web-based messaging tools are valuable tools for cancer care and social support. Developers of these systems should be prepared to address the challenges of including social networking and emerging web technologies in clinical and consumer informatics systems. Experiences and challenges from a pilot test of a web-based messaging and social networking system for cancer patients will be discussed, and recommendations are offered for system design and adoption.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 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: D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D009862:Online Systems; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012944:Social Support