Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education
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We previously reported that doctor-patient communication in the cancer context may be suboptimal. We therefore developed measures to assess patient communication preferences and established feasibility of an Internet-based intervention to improve communication. ⋯ The Internet offers an opportunity to assess patient preferences and prompt physicians about individual patient informational needs prior to the clinical encounter.
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Review
SMILES--toward a better laughter life: a model for introducing humor in the palliative care setting.
Humor and laughter have been thought to be beneficial for thousands of years. Although much has been written on this subject, there is very little written about the actual use of humor in practice. This article reviews the role that humor and laughter may play in medicine in general and palliative care in particular. In addition, it introduces a model that clinicians can follow when trying to introduce humor into their daily encounters with patients.
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Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an important strategy for reducing racial disparities in health outcomes. Academic-community partnerships are central to CBPR; however, there are few examples of how to develop these partnerships for prostate cancer research. This report describes the methods used to develop an academic-community partnership between investigators at the University of Pennsylvania and members of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer for CBPR on quality of life following prostate cancer diagnosis. Our experiences demonstrate that a significant investment of time is needed to identify a community partner for prostate cancer research and develop an effective partnership.