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Holly Witteman contacted me by e-mail. She says she is conducting a study as part of her Ph.D. research. (She is a Ph.D. candidate in Human Factors, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and a doctoral fellow with Health Care, Technology and Place at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada.)
The main purpose of this project is to develop new ways to help people more easily find useful and personally relevant prostate cancer information on the Web - Holly began researching in this area after a close family member of hers was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
It seems to me to be a worthwhile exercise and as Holly has undertaken to send copies of all publications that result from the study to participants if they wish to see them, I think that would perhaps be of some use to me in being able to focus the Yana website better and present more pertinent information.
Anyone is interested in participating in the study should go to PORPUS and sign on.
Participation in this study involves answering a two-part online survey which will take approximately 90 minutes total and will be conducted at your convenience. It can be completed all at once or in parts, whichever is most convenient for you. The survey will ask you questions about yourself, your experiences with prostate cancer, your health, and your opinions of specific Websites about prostate cancer.
I have completed the survey and found it very interesting because it led me to some websites that I had not visited previously, some of which had some excellent information which I will link from Yana in due course.
No pressure, but this is a chance to help those who follow behind us - I'm sure you can all remember how difficult it was to find what we wanted to know when we were first diagnosed.
I just took both parts of the study. I was able to finish it in much less than 90 minutes. I recommend that the rest of you out there participate in at least the first part. It asks about your experiences and opinions. If you are motivated, the second part will take you to 20 websites, many of which I've never seen.
