Cancer Information Goes Mobile

By: Lakshmi Grama, Senior Digital Content Strategist, NCI Office of Communications and Education (NIH)

Who seeks cancer information on a mobile phone? What information would they be looking for? These were some of the questions that my colleagues and I faced as we planned our strategy to help people access NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) resources anywhere, anytime, on any device.

Data from national surveys had already shown us that 40% of adults in the U.S. used mobile phones for Web access, email, and instant messaging and that African Americans and Latinos were even more likely to depend on mobile phones for Internet access.

User research made it clear that we needed to “mobilize” our patient-oriented content. Patients and their caregivers said they needed easily understandable information about cancer diagnosis, treatment, and coping with the side effects of cancer and its treatment.

Looking at our Web analytics, it was clear that users were already coming in droves to this content using mobile phones—we went from 200,000 page views from mobile devices on our desktop site in May 2011 to more than a million page views in December 2011!

Then came the inevitable question—mobile app or mobile website? The answer was really dependent on the context in which our users would find and use our content. People dealing with a health crisis are most likely to go to a search engine to find information and not to an app store. So a mobile website was the way to go!

But we had so much content for patients and their caregivers! And we knew that in the mobile context, it was even more important that we get people to the best information in the least amount of time. We had to put our content on a “diet”—carefully selecting the content that would work best in the mobile context.

With our strategy set, our cross-functional team of content managers, information architects, developers, and usability experts used an agile approach to build the mobile site that launched in February 2012. Check us out at http://m.cancer.gov!

Comments

08/24/2012 1:08 PM

Exciting move with use of technology. Hope there are plans to address other disease issues in a like manner. Such as other Immune system disoorders or cardiovascular topics.

8/24/2012 11:45 AM

KEEP IT SIMPLE!

8/24/2012 11:32 AM

I think this is a wonderful idea for all !!

8/24/2012 10:41 AM

great idea put all info for emergencies, all info on new healthcare programs as they become available to the people, and info about insurance coverage for those of us who need to know where to purchase the most afforable for our needs and the needs of our families.

8/23/2012 4:12 PM

This site was actually very helpful when I was told in my appointment that I needed to follow up with an oncologist and continue through the process.

8/27/12 9:37 PM

Something that would have helped me when I needed this as I dealt with the diagnostic process would have been to have some visuals -- not necessarily goary photos -- but maybe some diagrams so I would not have to leave the mobile site to google it. Just something that could help make it even more useful and help break up all of the text.

8/28/12 8:39 AM

Keep it up go man go

8/28/12 6:29 AM

This type of information I believe would be great, but will there be enough information in regards of differ cancers and the applicated chemo? This will be a benefit even for healthcare because it becomes easier to distinquish regims and care in particular. Thank you

8/28/12 6:47 PM

Putting personal information especially medical problems or health insurance infomation concerns me. I see where you are going with this and it is a good idea, however using mobile or wireless gadgets can be easily stolen, well that is my understanding. What security measures would be put in place to protect a person from identity theft?

8/30/12 2:11 AM

I think this will be a very beneficial tool.

9/6/2012 9:18 AM

I was checking the apps and it seemed as if they were mostly for i-phone and not androids, are there android apps that I missed?

8/28/12 7:51 AM

Engage consumers to effectively employ health services, with respondsibility, not emotionality to self,insurance provider,consideration of bloated health care costs,and future generations. Excessive and inappropriate care puts them at risk.[name removed for privacy]