A MULTIMEDIA INTRODUCTION TO CAM FOR CANCER PATIENTS

DESCRIPTION: HealthMark Multimedia, LLC will develop the prototype for an education and decision support CD-ROM, entitled Interactive Guide to CAM for Cancer PatientsJ. This CD-ROM will provide patients with the information and interactive tools to focus their learning about complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), their CAM decision-making, and treatment selection. In Phase I, HealthMark will identify the CAM information and decisional needs of cancer patients, design and produce a product prototype, and test the prototype with cancer patients. Phase I research activities will assess the feasibility of using an interactive CD-ROM to help cancer patients understand the uses of CAM as part of their cancer treatment and make decisions about its use. Phase I research will have two components: a formative evaluation and a prototype feasibility test. The formative evaluation will refine the product information and approach as proposed here. The prototype evaluation will provide information on product usability, acceptance, and knowledge and self-efficacy gains by users. In Phase II the complete CD-ROM will be developed and the product=s effectiveness in increasing cancer patients knowledge of CAM and their self-efficacy will be determined through a randomized field trial. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: NOT AVAILABLE