Office of Public Relations — Newsroom
News Release
UCCC Receives $500,000 from CDC for Training Web Site
AURORA, Colo. (Sept. 19, 2005) — The University of Colorado Cancer Center has been awarded a one-year, $500,000 grant from the Centers of Disease Control to develop a secure blood cancer Web site to educate health care providers in the Rocky Mountain region with state-of-the-art information concerning hematological malignancies.
Dr. Han Myint, who joined UCCC in July as the director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, is the program director for the grant. He will build the Web site with a team of hematological malignancy experts, Web site developers, continuing medical education experts, and others, as appropriate.
"Our goal is to disseminate hematological cancer education to health care providers, including primary care physicians, hematologists, oncologists and allied health care workers," Myint said. "Initially the site, which will be built as part of the UCCC Web site, will offer continuing education training and credit."
Ultimately, Myint's vision is that early detection and state-of-the-art treatment of hematological malignancies will become the standard of care everywhere. By offering training online, health care providers throughout the region can take courses when and where it is convenient for them. Additionally, during the grant period, all training courses will be offered at no cost.
By the time the project is complete, physicians will also be able to consult through secure online communication with hematological specialists at UCCC about specific patient cases. As a result, patients living in remote areas of the country can experience better outcomes and survivorship without having to travel great distances for the best care.
The project, which is scheduled for completion in less than a year, will be developed in three phases:
- Phase 1: By February 2006, the first of the professional training courses using visual and audio materials on management of hematological cancers will be available to health care providers through the UCCC Web site.
- Phase 2: By May 2006, the project will allow secure communications and integrated Web-based services to physicians and other clinicians, whether one-to-one or one-to-many, via a HIPAA-compliant discussion sites and online clinical consultation services.
- Phase 3: By August 2006, materials designed to assist health care providers to determine the best diagnosis and treatment plan, based on a patient's presenting signs and symptoms, will be available in the form of tools, algorithms and suggested pathways.
Targeted mailings and advertising will be distributed later this year announcing the introduction of the program and inviting health care providers to visit the Web site and learn more about the services offered.
The University of Colorado Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the Rocky Mountain Region. Headquartered primarily at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, its four-part mission is excellence in cancer research, treatment, prevention and education. For more information, visit the Web site at www.uccc.info.