- Cure4Kids
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Cure4Kids is a web-based education project of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital with the mission of helping health professionals in countries with limited resources improve the survival rates of children with catastrophic illnesses, including pediatric cancer, sickle cell disease, and HIV/AIDS. The Cure4Kids web-site, which is free of charge to registered members, provides access to online seminars and conferences with audio narration and presents current research and best practices, clinical and scientific advances, as well as case studies and treatment analyses. Users also have access to consultation and mentoring through web-conferencing technology, training for management and analysis of clinical patient information, electronic full-text books and journals, and online self-paced courses. The Cure4Kids site contains over 1200 seminars, courses, and conferences. All material can be easily used and downloaded for reference and educational purposes. Cure4Kids is funded by St. Jude and ALSAC, the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities.
As of August 8, 2011, Cure4Kids had more than 27,000 registered users (including to doctors, nurses and other health professionals) in 175 countries. Since its inception in 2002, Cure4Kids users have accessed or downloaded individual content items more than 4.7 million times. Over 300 international groups meet online on Cure4Kids web conferencing rooms to discuss clinical cases, and share knowledge on the treatment of cancer and other catastrophic diseases in children. Cure4Kids has over 1800 online seminars and courses. From 2002 through 2011, Cure4Kids’ online meeting rooms were accessed over 100,000 times by health professionals for online education and clinical discussions. Over 280 international groups have used Cure4Kids for online meetings and collaborations.
In 2007 Cure4Kids also has launched Oncopedia, a section in Cure4Kids that is compiled using online submissions from Cure4Kids users. The main purpose of Oncopedia is to provide a forum in which registered Cure4Kids users can participate in asynchronous online discussions of critical issues related to pediatric oncology and hematology. The content includes complex hematology/oncology cases and images with specific questions about patient management, controversial topics, and interesting presenting features, including illustrations of patient's clinical characteristics and imaging and pathology findings. An international editorial board reviews all the contributions. The cases that are chosen are posted on Oncopedia with expert commentary from our editorial board, and then opened for online moderated discussion. Registered Cure4Kids users can interact online with other users and the editorial board by posting opinions and questions about the content. All material can be freely used and downloaded for reference and educational purposes. Oncopedia combines the open participatory features of collaborative Web sites such as Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) with the benefits of an international editorial board composed of subject matter experts. Initially, Oncopedia content consisted of case reports, images, and chapters. In 2008 polls, image challenges, and educational videos were added as additional tools for education and interaction. As of August 8, 2011, Oncopedia contained 111 case reports, 154 images, 70 videos, 47 chapters, 28 polls, 18 image challenges. Oncopedia has been viewed 127,636 times by 7,526 users.
Cure4Kids for Kids is a community outreach program intended to help children, their parents, and teachers understand the basic science of cancer and its treatment. With culturally sensitive and age-appropriate content, the program is designed to educate children, parents and teachers about cancer and dispel common misconceptions about childhood cancer, instill healthy habits in children that could prevent the development of adult cancer, and increase children’s overall interest in science and scientific careers. The pilot program contained three educational modules: Cells (presented as the basic unit of life), Cancer (presented as a disease of unhealthy cells), and Healthy Living (presented as practices for cancer prevention such as proper nutrition, safe sun exposure, tobacco control, and appropriate physical activity). For each module, St. Jude provides a teacher’s guide, children’s book, activity book, in-class presentation, and activities related to the topic.
Cure4Kids was awarded the 2010 Best Medical Website award for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development 14th Annual WebAwards. Cure4Kids received the 2009 Gold Award in the Best Health/Healthcare Content in the 2009 Strategic e-HealthCare Awards. In 2008 Cure4Kids won the Gold W3 Web Award in Education Category. In 2007 Cure4Kids was selected as an official honoree for the health category at the 12th annual Webby Awards.
External links
Categories:- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
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