Using Health Literacy and Learning Styles to Guide Oncology Patients Through the Pharmacogenetic Maze of Personalized Medicine

The Knowledge Management/Eskind Biomedical Library at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center will develop a model for delivering patient-specific, consumer-friendly information that will lead to more informed patients, who are more likely to take a proactive, participatory role in their health care. The project's test bed will be My Cancer Genome (mycancergenome.org), a freely available web-based tool that provides information on tumor-based genetic mutations that can impact cancer treatment, the study of which is called pharmocogenetics. The team has selected two cancer types, melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer to demonstrate broad applicability of the model framework developed. Key project components include drafting guidelines for developing consumer-friendly educational material about pharmacogenetic principles; creating consumer-friendly pharmocogenetic content; and detailing a process for content refinement and evaluation.