|
Tour of PIES
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.
The term for text or headings that take you to a different section
on a website, is called 'hyperlink'. A hyperlink can also be attached
to an image or a picture as well as a heading or maybe even just
a word or a sentence in the middle of a paragraph of text. Often
such a hyperlink in the text is underlined or stands out as having
a different colour from the rest of the surrounding text. There
are also other sections listed on the right of the main PIE, for
instance a section on NHS information, clicking on these will
lead you to further information which may be of use.
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.
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.
The selection of resources we have chosen is by no means a comprehensive
collection of all useful resources that exist within each topic
and we do not necessarily consider them as being better than resources
that have not been included. For various reasons, many excellent
and useful resources are still not here, but we would be very
interested to hear about any suggestions about information you
think we should include.
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.
|
