Sample_ Interview Paper.doc - Running head: INTERVIEW:...

Running head: INTERVIEW: POCKET CANCER CARE GUIDE 1
Interview: Pocket Cancer Care Guide
Student

INTERVIEW: POCKET CANCER CARE GUIDE 2
Interview: Pocket Cancer Care Guide
Documentation in my healthcare career has transitioned from a paper and faxed based
system through the transition to a nearly 100% digital environment. In 1997-98, as I assisted my
father with his navigation through a journey with cancer, I carried a blue, spiral bound notebook
with me, appropriately and lovingly, referred to as the ‘blue book.’ The ‘blue book’ served as our
family communication tool. As questions arose prior to appointments we jotted them in the ‘blue
book’, we recorded lab values and test results, appointment dates and the responses the providers
had to our questions. Everyone knew that the ‘blue book’ was the central communication tool
for my father’s medical journey. However, I was the only one in the family that consistently
remembered to document in the ‘blue book’ and was especially frustrated when my family
members were not able to recall the details of the answers to my questions they read from the
‘blue book’ to the providers when I was unable to attend appointments.
When this assignment was posed in this course my experience, with my father, led me to
search, initially, for an electronic application that would replace the ‘blue book’ in digital world.
I also wanted to honor my father who was one of the original software engineers and
programmers for the first general purpose, and programable, electronic digital computer in the
early 1950’s. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was designed and
built by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert (McGuire, 2007) who recruited my father from
graduate school to work with them. Would not my father be amazed that the digital capacity of
his room sized ENIAC can now fit in the palm of one’s hand in a smart phone?
Application: The Pocket Cancer Care Guide
The Pocket Cancer Care Guide (PCCG) was designed to facilitate patient-clinician
communication through patient initiated ‘care guides’ that allow the user to select common pre-

INTERVIEW: POCKET CANCER CARE GUIDE 3
determined questions from 23 categories related to cancer diagnosis, treatment, and quality of
life. The user is also able to craft custom questions individual to their own needs. The
individualized care guides are populated and organized by the user, the patient, to use as prompts
during visits with their clinician (National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship [NCCD], n.d.).