LEVELS OF LEARNING ABOUT CANCER BY PEDIATRIC PATIENTS

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DESCRIPTION: This SBIR proposal will generate an interactive multimedia CD-ROM program for pediatric cancer patients ages 5-16 years. Use of multimedia can expand children's knowledge about cancer, treatment protocols, and clinical trials, because the visual presentation of complex issues is tailored to each child's age, gender, cognitive developmental level, native language and reading level, experience, maturity, and physical and emotional condition. The program will be easy to use, highly interactive and interesting. Screen presentations on cancer in general, as well as information specific to the child's diagnosis and treatment, will be enhanced with video, animation, sound, and music. Learning activities will be bolstered by games and puzzles, varying in difficulty, with presentation dictated by the child's level of understanding. Phase I will establish the feasibility, design, and marketability of the proposed multimedia program for pediatric oncology patients. The program, completed in Phase II, will be tested for acceptability and effectiveness (learning, emotional status and adverse events, and treatment adherence), relative to brochures and noninteractive video. In addition to the pediatric oncology patients, the program should be informative to parents, siblings, friends and have wide appeal to children's hospitals, to the pharmaceutical industry and to teachers of children with cancer.