OBJECTIVE: To examine the way in which breast cancer patients' illness stories in the Dutch language are disclosed on the Internet. METHODS: Websites containing Dutch illness stories written by breast cancer patients were selected using a search engine on the Internet. A checklist was developed based on a theoretical framework for analysing communication processes in order to examine the selected websites. RESULTS: None of the websites implements search facilities based on either the content of an illness story, or the personal features of the author. A minority of the websites offers information about the illness stories, such as author's genuineness and editor's review. CONCLUSION: The Internet's opportunities are not fully utilized with respect to disclosing breast cancer patients' illness stories. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: In order to support a patient in finding appropriate illness stories in the diverse set of available stories, we are in the process of developing an application that combines symbolic and statistical natural language analysis techniques to facilitate content-based retrieval.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the way in which breast cancerpatients' illness stories in the Dutch language are disclosed on the Internet. METHODS: Websites containing Dutch illness stories written by breast cancerpatients were selected using a search engine on the Internet. A checklist was developed based on a theoretical framework for analysing communication processes in order to examine the selected websites. RESULTS: None of the websites implements search facilities based on either the content of an illness story, or the personal features of the author. A minority of the websites offers information about the illness stories, such as author's genuineness and editor's review. CONCLUSION: The Internet's opportunities are not fully utilized with respect to disclosing breast cancerpatients' illness stories. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: In order to support a patient in finding appropriate illness stories in the diverse set of available stories, we are in the process of developing an application that combines symbolic and statistical natural language analysis techniques to facilitate content-based retrieval.