Extending the reach, effectiveness, and efficiency of communication: Evidence from the centers of excellence in cancer communication research

摘要

1. An extraordinary opportunity At the turn of the century, the U.S.-based National Cancer Institute (NCI) included a section in its annual budget proposal identifying "cancer communications as an area of "extraordinary opportunity" for investment in scientific understanding [1]. At the time of this announcement, the World Wide Web was barely 7 years old, yet communication scientists had already begun documenting an unprecedented amount of Web traffic going to health-related sites. A Harris Poll conducted in 1998 found that 54 million Americans had gone online looking for health information, with cancer showing up as the third most commonly searched health term after "depression" and "allergies" [2]. Moreover, physicians and patient educators were beginning to notice that patients were engaging health information in new ways. Some patients would come into their clinical appointments loaded with information culled from their searches of the Web; others were feeling overwhelmed and were not sure how to take advantage of the largely unreadable, highly technical scientific content they found online [2-6]. The world of communication technology was changing dramatically and rapidly [7]. What NCI recognized is that with change comes opportunity. By tracking these changes directly and by investing in cutting-edge science that would allow researchers to harness the power of the new information technologies, NCI leaders reasoned that it should be possible to make productive, scientific inroads into the "new frontier." Just as the Gutenberg revolution in movable type altered the world of science and health over five centuries ago, the new revolution in communication technology was beginning to herald a new opportunity for extending the reach, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer communication activities [8].