Virtual Conversations for Prostate Cancer Decisions

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad, long-term objective of this program is to improve the knowledge and awareness of patients with critical illnesses, empowering them to more actively participate in meaningful conversations with health care providers and in the decisions that must be made to remedy their current problem and improve their overall health. The specific aim of this Phase II project is to field test and refine a virtual dialogue prostate cancer patient education model involving a multidisciplinary team of experts. This unique patient education model will be accessible over the Internet. When this work is complete, patients and their families will be able to obtain accurate, reliable, comprehensive knowledge about this disease and current treatment modalities through independent virtual conversations with each of the prostate cancer experts. This project is in full support of the NIH mission of improving the health of the nation. If virtual dialogue technology were fully implemented as a unique patient education paradigm over the Internet, it could elevate the understanding patients have about health matters, and empower them with knowledge and the confidence to participate, with their health care provider, in decisions about their illness and general health. Also, this project is in full support of a primary aspect of the NCI mission regarding research in health information dissemination. Virtual dialogue technology offers the opportunity for patients to individually engage cancer experts in a systematic, reliable, multidisciplinary approach to learning about their illness. The dissemination of prostate cancer information to patients through direct, face-to-face dialogues with each practitioner in a multidisciplinary cancer clinic on a nationwide basis is unprecedented. The development and research that would lead to this phenomenon is being proposed. In Phase II, the researchers will partner with the Center for Prostate Disease Research (CPDR) clinical staff at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). A series of virtual dialogue programs will be developed to embody the comprehensive knowledge of six essential prostate cancer experts from the CPDR multidisciplinary clinic (i.e., surgeon, radiation oncologist, urologic andrologist, etc). The series will be evaluated with regard to the feasibility of delivering this series of virtual dialogue programs over the Internet, and the patients' acceptance of this new method will be measured. Also, a usual-treatment Control group will be employed in a pre-post testing environment to assess the comparative knowledge gained by these newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients and to determine if this virtual dialogue model efficaciously delivers the knowledge of these multidisciplinary prostate cancer experts. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: An Internet-based virtual dialogue patient education model will make the most trustworthy health practitioners available to everyone for individual face-to-face dialogues about their area of expertise. Patients will be more knowledgeable about their illnesses because of the reliable, comprehensive information they obtain directly from the mouth of the expert. The researchers believe that virtual dialogue represents a new paradigm in patient education; one in which any patient can independently engage medical experts in one-on-one, face-to-face dialogues. The patient is the active participant in the dialogue, rather than a passive, compliant listener. The key technology objective of this Phase II project is to enhance the Virtual Conversations(R) patient education system to include the ability to distribute virtual dialogue programs over the Internet. Achieving this objective will open the door to quick and easy access to the proposed multidisciplinary, prostate cancer virtual dialogue series by all cancer institutions and prostate cancer patients with access to the Internet.