Hypermedia Intelligent Breast Cancer Information System

We will produce a low-cost commercial intelligent hypermedia information system to educatepatients and the general public about breast cancer. User centered system design, focusing on seeingthe domain from the patient's or potential patient's point of view, is central to our approach. The needfor breast cancer education is evident; approximately 182 thousand women will be diagnosed withbreast cancer this year in the United States alone. Patients-and the general public-want information.Doctors and nurses are pressed for time, and may not be able to provide all of the information anindividual may want or need. One technological innovation in our proposal is the application ofuser-centered system design to a commercially available medical information system. A second is theuse of cognitive models of patients' understanding and perceived information needs regarding breastcancer and its treatments to develop the deep structure of the interface between the medical model andthe user.