How Websites Are Disseminating Information, Article Review Example

Abstract

The following will detail and examine how websites are disseminating information and addressing all issues pertaining to cancer in children. As the goal is to note the differences in governmental strata, sets of local, state, and national websites will be presented. Upon the detailing of what each website offers, summaries and comparisons will point out the advantages and/or limitations of each.

Maine

On a localized level, Bangor, Maine, is the home of the Eastern Maine Medical Center website: http://www.emmc.org/ . The site itself bears a traditionally laid-out home page with multiple links to various departments within the center. Tool bars at the page’s top are amply stocked with options, and the over-all web experience is reassuringly professional, with comprehensive directions in virtually any direction a visitor may require, including pediatric oncology.

This, however, is the site’s leading drawback, or rather a failing of the EMMC’s Internet strategy. Maine is, not unexpectedly, limited in choices for children’s cancer care; intensive searches on the Internet reveal only two, in fact, and the EMMC link is set out as a definitive destination for pediatric oncology, and a localized one at that. It is not. It is the EMMC site, completely, with pediatric oncology only one of a multitude of fields addressed. The parent or relation seeking specific and local information will be disappointed. Directed by specific links, they will instead merely find themselves in a massive, hospital website.

On a state level, Maine performs no better. The Maine Medical Health Center (http://www.mmc.org/mmc_body.cfm?id=637 ), while a federal institution, is equally guilty of a misleading web address. As with the EMMC, the site is cleanly laid-out and features link access to all its departments. Also in keeping with the EMMC format is an apparent updating of material and information; listings of doctors are extensive and specific, and contact information clearly is updated as required. However, again we find that pediatric oncology is merely one of many options, despite an array of searches all requesting only that, and all resulting in the same website. Maine’s children’s cancer care may be extensive but it is badly represented on the Internet, and more care must be given to its accessibility.

Florida

Turning our attention to Florida, the city of Tampa offers the Children’s Cancer Center (http://www.childrenscancercenter.org/ ). The site is designed to impart optimism, with bright images and colors, and it is as exhaustive in its links to information and resources as any national website. ‘In the News’ features updated videos pertaining to the center’s activities, while the ‘Programs’ offers a truly impressive array of meetings and functions, with detailed information about each. This is an outstanding example of a localized children’s cancer website done right, and the welcoming tone combine with the informative lay-out to satisfy the need of any parent seeking information about assistance in Tampa.

On a statewide level, we find the University of Florida producing a remarkably specific site with a definitive focus on pediatric oncology: http://www.floridaproton.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-children.html?gclid=CJPk3-jh9qMCFQtdswod9xcc2A . This website, lacking the warm overtones of the Tampa center, is devoted exclusively to the use of proton therapy in treating cancers, and the sharing of information regarding it. A well-designed tool bar to the left guides the visitor through a progression of inquiries, from defining the therapy to how its application may benefit various cancer patients, including children.

On the less positive side, the entire site has a commercial feel to it, somewhat like an advertisement for proton therapy. That said, however, it is clearly a strategically planned and informative website, and the subject it treats is cutting-edge in all oncology research.

National Sites

Here we find the single-minded addressing of only pediatric oncology that the parent requires. First is the CureSearch for Children’s Cancer site (http://www.curesearch.org/), and it is exemplary in lay-out and information. Rather than swamp the visitor with unwanted data or

opinion on a cluttered home page, a very user-friendly panel walks him through an expanse of options. Events and research, the latest news in the field and definitions of varying cancers, are all systematically and clearly available. Moreover, the site manages to address children directly without condescending to traditional children’s attractions. This is a serious website which means business, yet it is approachable and helpful.

The Children’s Cancer Association, at  http://www.childrenscancerassociation.org/, is perhaps the most visited site from any Internet search on pediatric oncology. The organization behind it is evidently robust, yet the site reverts to the warm, ‘kid-friendly’ atmosphere of the Tampa center. It is not garish or juvenile in any way, yet it conveys a desire to be seen as hopeful., and images and colors are soft and affectionate in tone. This is a site far more about support than research or information, and the majority of its links veer only in supportive directions. As this is of course a crucial element in child cancer care, this is not necessarily a criticism. However, so easily reached a website on so complex and shifting an issue should offer both support and direct, medical information and contact data.

Summary 

Public health concerns, particularly in areas as demanding of information relation as pediatric oncology, should be the primary target for any medically-related website. In an era of constantly expanding data and new discovery, the Internet is the ideal tool for the immediate dissemination of the latest information. Moreover, governmental funding and/or capabilities should only factor in the design and maintenance of websites on a minimal level; basically, not a great deal of funding is needed to run an exceptional and up-to-date oncology website.

On levels local, statewide, and national, it appears that Internet services in this arena suffer from the issues that plague less important websites: inconsistency and misleading

placement. The child or parent seeking facts about children’s oncology is no random demographic, but clearly someone with an agenda which can be readily addressed, and these websites owe the patients and families the relatively minimal effort required to design state-of-the-art pages. In an era when more professional websites are devoted to a pop star’s current tour schedule, nothing less is acceptable.

References

Children’s Cancer Association:  http://www.childrenscancerassociation.org/

Children’s Cancer Center: http://www.childrenscancercenter.org/

CureSearch for Children’s Cancer: http://www.curesearch.org/

Eastern Maine Medical Center: http://www.emmc.org/

Maine Medical Center: http://www.mmc.org/mmc_body.cfm?id=637

University of Florida Oncology: http://www.floridaproton.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-children.html?gclid=CJPk3-jh9qMCFQtdswod9xcc2A