Recorded presentation

Susan G. Brink, DrPH¹, Jane Lincoln, MSW², and Cathy Prahl¹. (1) HealthMark Multimedia, 1828 L Street NW, Suite 250, Washington, DC 20036, 202-265-0033, sbrink@healthmarkmultimedia.com, (2) HealthMark Multimedia, HealthMark Multimedia, LLC, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 250, Washington, DC 20036

Eighty-three percent of cancer patients use complementary therapies to manage symptoms of cancer and side effects of conventional treatment. “Ideal” cancer care may integrate evidence-based complementary therapies with conventional care, but, for now, the burden of exploring options, weighing efficacy versus risks, and coordinating care between providers falls upon the patient. The Complementary Cancer Care: Your Healing Plan™ CD-ROM will provide cancer patients with an educational decision aid for integrating complementary care with their conventional treatment through goal setting and development of a personalized healing plan that can be adjusted over time depending on changing goals and disease status. Thirty-seven cancer patients with varied diagnoses (ages 40-70) tested the product prototype; 81% were female and 22% were minority. All patients had had conventional treatment. Knowledge scores (p<.001), self-efficacy (p<.000) and skill in examining complementary therapies prior to use (p<.000) all showed a significant improvement pre-to-post test. One-way ANOVA was used to determine possible differences in scores by age, education and race/ethnicity. No pre- to post-test differences were found on any of the three scores by age, race/ethnicity or education level. The prototype test results indicate that it is possible to provide a multimedia product that functions as an interactive tool to help people with cancer learn about, explore and make decisions on using complementary therapies. Currently the full product is being developed and will be field-tested against a book of CAM therapies for cancer patients.

Learning Objectives:

At the completion of this session, attendees will be able to
• describe the CAM information needs of cancer patients,
• Discuss the development process for a CAM related CD-ROM,
• Describe the role of formative evaluation in the development process.

Keywords: Cancer, Computer-Assisted

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Principal owner

Recorded presentation