The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #44989

H. Grady Watts, MA¹, Gerardine Wurzburg, MA¹, Catherine Harbour, MPH¹, Dick R Lui, MPH¹, Tom de Boor², Gretchen Hermes, MA, PhD (ABD)³, Kimberly L Jeffries, PhD⁴, and Suzanne M. Randolph, PhD⁵. (1) State of the Art, Inc., 4455 Connecticut Ave. NW Ste. B-200, Washington, DC 20008, (2) Cotyledon Productions, 2136 W. Thomas Street, Chicago, IL 60622, (3) Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, 940 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, (4) MayaTech Corp., 8737 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910, (5) Randolph Associates, 9816 Pebble Weigh Ct., Burke, VA 22015

With funding from NCI, State of the Art developed an interactive web application to provide informational and social support men with prostate cancer. The web application uses information provided by user to create profile. The profile is used to assign the user to a treatment community. These communities allow the delivery of targeted information to users, specific to their perceived and actual needs. The communities also allow users to interact with each other via bulletin boards and/or an email mentor relationship with another member. The site also features a Treatment Decision Assistant that helps newly diagnosed patients weigh their treatment choice against side effects.

This session will outline the qualitative and quantitative methods, which involved the participation of men with prostate cancer, used to develop and evaluate the web application. Portions of the web application will be demonstrated during the session. Topics covered in the session will include message development, participant recruitment, and production considerations. Results from a short-term time series pre/post test evaluation will also presented.

Learning Objectives:

• • Describe the procedure for developing a web application that provides informational and social support to men with prostate cancer.
  • Describe the procedure for evaluating a web application that provides informational and social support to men with prostate cancer.

Keywords: Interactive Communication, Cancer

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: State of the Art, Inc.
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employment -- Director of Research