In overwhelming number of websites, many providing a portal to information on kidney cancer, confront us as professionals to integrate this non peer reviewed information into our patient support and interactions. Navigating this vast cyberspace for information of true value, relevance, and practical merit represents a daunting challenge for anyone seeking to understand its true benefit to the patient experience; and frequently the information is derived from sources lacking scientific validation or confirmation in rigorous clinical trials. For the many unsolicited emails vying for your attention, perhaps a few will be worthwhile.
By now we all have our favorite “go-to” websites for trusted information, but it is worthwhile or at least intriguing to explore a few other online resources that may not be within your frame of reference. If you have not explored some of the following websites, you may want to investigate whether they provide some helpful information. Although they are not all targeted to kidney cancer, they may provide portals to information about the disease or other data of interest to you as a clinician. In some cases, the information on these websites explores the business side or entrepreneurial issues of health care, offering a glimpse of drugs in the pipeline and trends within pharma beginning to emerge but with potential implications for patient care.
- OncologyEducation.com is a comprehensive resource providing evidence-based educational content exclusively developed and authored by a leading international faculty of oncology physicians. All content focuses on presenting timely, unbiased information for the oncology community, including oncologists and other related specialists, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, students, residents and researchers. OncologyEducation.com resources are updated regularly and include more than 4,000 pages of original, expert-reviewed content on recent advances in literature and clinical trials, conference updates and presentations, and disease-specific information, all of which are delivered through integrated online and mobile platforms.
- kidneycancer.org is intended primarily as a resource for patients and medical professionals and the information presented is periodically reviewed by the Kidney Cancer Association’s medical and scientific advisors. News about clinical trials, patient advocacy issues, legislative awareness, and other sources of information for professionals also can be accessed on this website.
- obroncology.com (Oncology Business Review) is the most comprehensive digital platform for oncology focused news and information. This website aggregates, customizes and prioritizes daily oncology news and publications (OBR Daily for industry and providers, RSS newsfeeds). It researches, develops, and publishes original content, and conducts, interprets and analyzes original research.
- Medscape.com offers specialists, primary care physicians, and other health professionals the Web’s most robust and integrated medical information and educational tools. After a simple, 1-time, free registration, Medscape from WebMD automatically delivers a personalized specialty site that best fits your registration profile.
- FirstWordPharma.com supplies global news and intelligence to the pharmaceutical industry. The service provides the top industry news stories on a daily basis in a format that is quick and easy to access so that users can always be in-the-know about the latest news and developments in their industry.
- Cancernetwork.com uses a variety of clinical, educational, and practice management tools to meet the informational needs of medical oncologists. It offers an array of clinical content highlighting the latest research and updates from important medical meetings.
- KidneyCancerHome Page at cancer.gov This is the NCI’s gateway for information about kidney cancer. Access is also available to information about clinical trials on the website.
- kidney-cancer-journal.com is the website for Kidney Cancer Journal, enabling you to access all content in the current issue for free and review past issues.
Please let us know if you regularly spend time on other websites of possible interest to medical oncologists and urologists, especially those with a focus on renal cell carcinoma.
Robert A. Figlin, MD
Editor-in-Chief
robert.figlin@cshs.org