NcXHF

ADVANCES IN WEBSITE INFORMATION RESOURCES
lack of information such as dosing (0% versus 90%, respectively).
However, several recent studies have demonstrated
that Wikipedia has markedly improved with regards to
health information. In 2014, Kräenbring et al systematically
compared the accuracy and completeness of drug information
in the German and English language versions of Wikipedia
to several standard pharmacology textbooks. They
found that the accuracy of the drug information in Wikipedia
was 99.7% 0.2% when compared with the textbook data. 22
Completeness was less robust but still reasonable, at 85%. To
our knowledge, no published article has systematically addressed
the information content of clinician-oriented,
cancer-related articles in Wikipedia (patient-oriented content
has previously been examined). 23 Some have suggested
that medical Wikipedia articles be subject to formal peer review,
24 although this is unlikely to become commonplace.
Given the uneven content coverage and the lack of editorial
controls, answers from Wikipedia for clinical queries would
likely need cross-validation from other sources to be accepted
confıdently.
ClinicalTrials.gov
As opposed to the resources described above, which are primarily
educational, ClinicalTrials.gov is devoted to the identifıcation
of clinical trials. At fırst a voluntary registry,
registration for most types of clinical trials became mandatory
after the passing of Section 801 of the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 on September
27, 2007. Once a trial is registered, it is given a National
Clinical Trials (NCT) number that can then be used to trace
the trial’s status and associated published results. With some
practice, a clinician or patient user can quickly locate open
trials by region, and scan at least the basic eligibility criteria.
Less robust are the “results” section of each trial, although an
notice of proposed rule making was recently issued to encourage
more transparent reporting of trial results. 25 Thus,
this portal will become increasingly useful to practicing oncologists
both as a means of identifying clinical trials outside
of their home institution and learning about results of completed
trials.
ONCOLOGY-SPECIFIC WEBSITES
American Society of Clinical Oncology Websites
Founded in 1964, the American Society of Clinical Oncology
(ASCO) represents more than 35,000 members, making it
the largest professional organization representing medical
oncologists. In addition to its mission statement of “conquering
cancer through research, education, prevention and delivery
of high-quality patient care,” ASCO has been a
proponent of adopting technology solutions, including the
Web, to fulfıl its vision. 26 Along with portals to its wellknown
journals, the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the
Journal of Oncology Practice, ASCO has several Web-based
initiatives of interest to practicing oncologists.
ASCO Connection (connection.asco.org). This multimedia,
professional networking portal includes a commentary blog
written by many well-known oncologists; links to the ASCO
Connection magazine; a number of discussion groups on specifıc
topics; forums designed to foster interactive conversations;
and a number of resources specifıcally for trainee and
early-career oncologists.
ASCO University (university.asco.org). This learning portal
was established “to provide a comprehensive eLearning Center
that supports lifelong learning.” 27 The target audience is
oncology professionals, and topics are organized by cancer
type as well as by goal of the audience: continuing medical
education, maintenance of certifıcation, and ASCO’s selfstudy
publication for board examinations, ASCO-SEP. The
site also contains the Meeting Library from past ASCO meetings,
an embedded bookstore, and a link to Journal of Clinical
Oncology’s career center.
Cancer.Net (cancer.net). Although Cancer.Net is focused toward
patients and their caregivers, it contains a wealth of information
that could be of use for patient education
materials. The site recently underwent a complete redesign
and is now very user friendly. In addition to links to factual
information on the diagnosis and treatment of 124 types of
cancer and cancer syndromes, the site contains multimedia
content and an active blog. Content is reviewed and approved
by an appointed editorial board.
Institute for Quality (instituteforquality.org). This recently
debuted website consolidates ASCO’s multiple quality improvement
efforts into one portal. This includes the Quality
Oncology Practice Initiative (commonly known as QOPI ® ),
templates for chemotherapy planning and summarization,
and clinical practice guidelines. The latter area in particular is
undergoing rapid growth, aided by a collaborative wiki site,
the ASCO Guidelines Wiki. Housed within the Institute but
also distinct is CancerLinQ (cancerlinq.org), which will take
on increasing relevance as the project goes live later in 2015. 28
ALLIED ORGANIZATIONS’ SITES
ASCO is but one stakeholder in the very large space of clinical
oncology, and there are many others. Although an exhaustive
overview of resources offered by allied organizations is out of
scope of this article, we provide Table 1 as an overview of some
of the major allied organizations. All of these organizations have
educational resources available through their websites, with
varying applicability to various practice environments. A more
extensive list, including subspecialty organizations, can be
found online at hemonc.org/wiki/Professional_organizations.
UNAFFILIATED SITES
There are many efforts by individuals, institutions, and other
collaborations that aim to bring oncology information to
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