Computer-mediated patient education: opportunities and challenges for supporting women with ovarian cancer.

Full Abstract

A majority of women with ovarian cancer will face recurrent disease despite receiving aggressive chemotherapy at the time of diagnosis. Given the complex medical and psychosocial needs of women with ovarian cancer and the time constraints within busy clinical settings, providing women with the necessary education related to their disease and treatments can be challenging. The advent of computers and web-based technologies has created new opportunities for educating cancer patients and supporting them to better cope with their disease. This article reviews prior studies of computer-based patient education interventions to identify key intervention components and other factors associated with improved patient outcomes. Opportunities for using computer-based technologies to support women with ovarian cancer are discussed and WRITE Symptoms (a Written Representational Intervention To Ease Symptoms), a web-based, symptom management intervention for women with recurrent ovarian cancer, is introduced.

Author information

Author/s: Dumrongpakapakorn, Phensiri (P); Hopkins, Kathy (K); Sherwood, Paula (P); Zorn, Kristin (K); Donovan, Heidi (H);

Affiliation: Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA.

Grants: 5T32NR008857 (Agency:NINR NIH HHS) ; R01 NR010735 (Agency:NINR NIH HHS) ; R21 NR009275 (Agency:NINR NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Review

Journal: The Nursing clinics of North America (Nurs Clin North Am), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 44 (issue 3) : pp 339-54

Dates: Created 2009/08/17; Completed 2009/08/27;

PMID: 19683095, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 8/27/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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