COMPUTER SCIENTIST DEVELOPS BETTER HEALTH INFORMATION ON THE WEB
A University of Wyoming computer scientist doesn't think it's necessary to be an expert to access good online information about health topics.
"People who are ill or people who are taking care of someone who is ill don't have time to search through thousands of Web sites related to the condition they're dealing with," says Rex Gantenbein, professor in the UW Department of Computer Science. "I thought it would be very useful it would be to create a pre-screening tool or a clearinghouse for medical and health information on the Web."
Gantenbein says the first step is designing a new program tool that will allow users to constrain Web searches better than with the techniques offered by conventional search engines. This will enable someone who is not familiar with all the technical aspects of a particular medical condition to locate the exact information they are seeking.
"A person should be able to find out about a particular kind of cancer, or a particular treatment, or to learn if there are other people out there with the same questions they have," he says.
Gantenbein is developing such a system to provide Web-based information about cancer using a grant from the Earl and Bessie Whedon Cancer Detection Foundation of Sheridan, Wyoming. The Whedons lost their only son to cancer and established the foundation to support research that encourages early detection and treatment of the disease.
Working with graduate student Yong Edward Qiu, Gantenbein began by building a searchable database of existing cancer Web sites. He also surveyed Wyoming physicians and other health-care professionals about how they might use new online tools. Gantenbein says the immediate goal is to set up a Web site within this database for use by doctors and other health-care personnel. Then he will ask those professionals to review various sites and identify which ones should be retained in the database for wider use.
The results will be applied to building similar databases for other medical conditions. Gantenbein also expects the Web site to integrate data gathered about the incidence of cancer in Wyoming with information found on the Web.
"Hospitals and researchers in the state have collected a lot of information about cancer among local residents," says Gantenbein. "We want to give people access to that information so they can use it to improve health care delivery in their communities. After that information is assembled in the database, researchers might discover whether the incidence of certain diseases is connected to a specific locality, for example."
The project's second component is ascertaining what kinds of computer hardware and networking capabilities exist among prospective users.
"We have to be sure users can access medical information in all its forms: graphs, charts and records that encompass more than just simple words and pictures," Gantenbein says. "This project is a component of telemedicine, which means moving all forms of medical information into remote areas and making it meaningful to the people receiving it."
The other challenge of telemedicine is protecting patient privacy. Gantenbein says Americans consider medical records some of the most privileged information in existence, while the Internet is a very public medium. He is confident a solution can be designed to make the two compatible and improve access to health information and medical treatment, particularly for people in rural areas.
Gantenbein can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. The Wyoming Cancer Control Network's Web site is http://longmeg.cs.uwyo.edu/cancer/.
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