Cancer, disability and public health service providers: better education through informatics and the Supercourse

Improving the performance of service organisations and enhancing the well-being of communities are critical challenges in the field of public health. In this paper, we will discuss issues relating to the issues of cancer disability in the context of information transfer and delivery to public health service providing organisations. This paper will highlight the development of the Global Health Supercourse project (www.pitt.edu/~super1) and its achievements in information transfer in the fields of cancer disability. With increasing life expectancy, cancer and disability became a growing concern in both developing and developed world. Research in the area of cancer disability has been quite limited. Prevention of cancer-related disabilities will involve collaborative efforts among cancer epidemiologists, rehabilitation professionals, physical therapists, nutritionists, medical doctors, nurses and representatives of various public health service providing organisations. IT can potentially serve as a bridge that that can link all these important fields together for the development of productive multidisciplinary research projects. At the same time, IT could serve an important role in translating these important research findings to the classrooms, public health service providing organisations, nurses and educators.