|
|||||
|
about cancer |
| specific cancers |
| treatment types |
| supportive care
local services | | library |
|||||
Every cancer patient and carer has different needs for information and support regardless of type, stage or prognosis of a cancer illness. Most people still get the information they want from their doctors, nurses and other health professionals in addition to various booklets and leaflets. Increasingly, people are also using the internet to look for additional information. Anybody who has tried to look for information on the internet will have discovered the huge amount of information that is available. Much of this is of high quality, but it can often be difficult to find the right information if you don't know where to look. Even experienced users of computers and the internet will often need guidance on where to find relevant and reliable information relating to a particular illness. The PIES website is designed to provide cancer patients and carers with personalised, user friendly and fast access to high quality information relevant to their individual needs while living with cancer through all stages of illness. The website has been developed by a team based at the University of Sheffield, UK. (See section 'About Us') PIES - Personalised Information, Education and Support is a project investigating how the internet can help people with cancer and their carers to obtain personalised, user friendly and quick access to quality assured information, which is relevant to their individual needs in living with cancer at any stage of illness. There are many sources used for providing and obtaining information and support relating to cancer, though traditionally we have relied mostly on verbal communication and printed media. Through developments in telecommunications via the World Wide Web, yet another source of information has opened for anyone to access at any time. Previous research from our project has already proved that the internet can be a very useful additional tool - provided people know how and where to look for the resources they need. Even experienced users of computers and the internet will often need guidance on where to find relevant and reliable information relating to an illness or treatment. The PIES website aims to offer people such assistance. If you are a new user to the internet, you might need a quick training session on how to move around on a website. Let's start with the difference between a website and a web page. A website is the total collection of all the individual web pages belonging to that particular website. In comparison with a book, the website is the book and the web pages are the different chapters in a book. The PIES website has got many different web pages and this section you are in now, called 'Tour of PIES' is a separate web page (chapter) within the PIES website. The fact that you are now in this web page, suggests that you have discovered the basics of using the buttons on a mouse in order to move from one page to another page on the website. The method of pressing the buttons on the mouse is often referred to as 'clicking'. You will soon find out where you should click in order to get to a new section. On the PIES home page, which is the starting page or welcome page on the website (like a content page in a book) - you can click on all the headings displayed on that page. On all other pages you will see text bars at the top and down the left hand side of all pages. You can click on any of these headings from any webpage on the website. To give an example: clicking on a slice of the PIE on the homepage will bring you into one of the six main areas (about cancer, specific cancers, treatment types, support, services, and library). Within each of these web pages are subsections, each of which contains a number of links to information, which can be obtained by clicking on the main headings. For instance, if you are looking for information on breast cancer,
click on 'Types of Cancer', this will then bring you to a list
of individual cancers, including breast cancer. Clicking on this
heading will bring you to a list of resources, and clicking on
individual titles within this will enable you to access particular
information. We have included a 'My notebook' section where, by simply giving us a few details, you will be able to store bits of information that interest you as you go around the site, and print them off when you have finished. Each resource listed on the PIES website displays [add to notebook] in the top right corner. When you click on this, the details of the resource will be automatically copied to your notebook. Once the resource has been copied, the message changes to: [added to notebook] so that you can see which ones you have collected. A more detailed explanation is given in the section itself. If you cannot find the information you are looking for in a particular section, do try another area of the site, use the 'search' section, or try accessing other information portals in 'Beyond PIES'. You should always be able to tell where you are, as the appropriate section of the PIE at the top of the page will stand out and the pages will display clear headings. From each web page, you will be able to go back to the home page, to print the page, (this button will print the text on the page without the surrounding colours and images) to change it to an easier format to read (click 'text only'), or to search the site by clicking on the images beneath the top text bar. Clicking on the section 'site map' will give you an overview of all the different sections / pages of the website, and you may find it easier to understand how the information is organised by having a look in this section. Does PIES always link to good quality information? It is important to us that the resources we link to from PIES are of high quality and relevant to those who need to use them. To help us with a formal and organised evaluation of information resources, we have a panel of health and social care professionals as well as representatives from users who are using certain standards to do so. In addition to that, we want all users to be able to give their own opinion about any particular resource and also to read what other people have said about them. In a box below each information resource, there is a note saying [add your rating]. By clicking here, you can write comments and/or give a quick 1 - 5 rating. If you are keen to learn more about how you can use the internet we have included some links to relevant educational sites for beginners. You can find links to these under the section 'beyond pies', 'learning more about the internet'. We have a section called 'about you' which we hope you will go into if you have not yet done so. In order to use 'my notebook' and the rating system on this website, you need to provide us with a few details. It will take you 1-2 minutes and there is no cost involved for this. This website is still in development, and if you have any suggestions,
or if there is particular information which you think should be
included and which you can't find, please do let us know, either
in the 'contact' section (marked by the envelope on the home page),
or in the section marked 'feedback'. Most of the information resources
could be relevant wherever you live in the UK and possibly also
in other countries. You will notice that some sections - particularly
the section on 'services' and 'library' - mostly provide information
relating to parts of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
Up until now, we have been funded primarily to develop the website
for these areas in particular. If we find that the PIES website
is a good model to use and if we can get further funding, we might
be able to refer to local information for other areas in the UK
at a later stage. We hope that you will take the opportunity and
go to the 'feedback' section to tell us what you think. We hope the site is helpful to you in finding the information you want. If there is anything you particularly like or don't like about the site, please contact us and let us know so that we can have the opportunity of improving it the way our users want it. |
|||||