UPMC Cancer Centers and MedRespond, LLC Launch Multimedia Web Site to Promote Understanding of Cancer Clinical Trials

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 4 – UPMC Cancer Centers and MedRespond, LLC have launched an educational Web site to help cancer patients and their families learn about cancer clinical trials. Nationally, only a small percentage of adult cancer patients participate in clinical trials. Many cancer patients have not heard about the option of participating in clinical trials or have fears and misconceptions about them. In order to address these barriers, the interactive site allows visitors to access an extensive menu of clinical trials topics including: what happens during a clinical trial, why people participate in clinical trials, side effects and safety, apprehensions and misconceptions, minority involvement in clinical trials, how to find a clinical trial, and insurance coverage and costs. It also defines common terms associated with clinical trials.

Three aspects of the new site make it a unique online clinical trial information resource. The site goes beyond traditional text-based Web sites by providing informational answers via video clips from both medical experts and educational guides. In addition, the site features extensive interview clips with cancer patients and actual clinical trial participants who share their own personal views and experiences. The site also includes MedRespond’s patented interactive technology that allows visitors to type in their own questions and receive video-based answers in real time. This technology was originally developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

Experts featured on the Web site include Samuel Jacobs, MD, associate director of clinical investigations, UPMC Cancer Centers, Dwight Heron, MD, director of radiation oncology services, UPMC Cancer Centers, and Marguerite Bonaventura, MD, assistant professor, division of surgical oncology, UPMC Cancer Centers.

The web site can be accessed by clicking on the “Meet Ask Understand” icon available on http://www.upmccancercenters.com/trials/.

Funding for the web site was provided, in part, by The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, in partnership with the following pharmaceutical firms: Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, and Novartis, and the National Cancer Institute (grant number 3R21CA101721-02S1).

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