Onctalk has been active for about two months now, and it’s been great so far, really picking up interest about as well as I could have hoped. I want to thank everyone for your interest and support and the very kind words of encouragement you’ve provided. As you can probably imagine, this takes a significant amount of time, but it’s worth it to know that so many people find it valuable, and that it’s a resource that apparently isn’t available everywhere. It seemed like a good idea to me, but that would be little consolation if nobody cared. My big concern was that I’d have set everything up and nobody would care:
(click to enlarge)
Fortunately, it wasn’t ignored, and at this point there are more than 250 registered members (you don’t need to register to see the content, but it’s nice to get people to register and participate), and plenty of daily traffic, so to me it’s clearly worth the effort.
Now that we have shown that this format is one that is serving a need, I’m about to start the process of seeking unrestricted educational grants, primarily from various pharmaceutical companies. This is in order to cover the costs of operating and the time I’m taking away from my other activities (primarily clinical practice, which I’m still doing, but less time). The Google ads in the margins pretty much just cover latte money, and not even as many espresso shots as I prefer (to put it in Seattle terms). With support from educational grants, I’ll be able to spend more time researching lung cancer issues and contributing new information very regularly. Of course, these grants would need to be unrestricted, so nobody controls what I would say, and it would be important to have several different companies supporting this, so as not to even give a hint of an appearance that OncTalk is a “product” of any company. I need to remain credible and balanced and use the evidence to highlight what I believe to be the best treatment approaches and why. And you need to challenge me if I can’t defend my argument, and definitely to raise a flare if you perceive anything on OncTalk to be tainted by commercial interests. As an oncology educator for patients, families, and physicians, my integrity and credibility are a limited resource I can’t afford to squander.
If there is continued interested by users and enough support from sponsors, my hope would be to add other experts who could provide expert information on not only other cancer types, such as breast cancer and colon cancer, but also cancer topics that are important to patients with any of these cancers, such as naturopathic medicine, radiation oncology, and an oncology pharmacist who has expert information about practical issues related to various cancer drugs.
Thanks for everyone’s encouragement and support thus far. I’m happy to hear people’s suggestions and concerns about the future plans for OncTalk. In the meantime, I’ll get right back to cancer info with my next post.
posted by Dr. West @ 7:10 pm link to this post
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January 16th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Thanks so much for making this great effort (to be a conduit for the latest intelligence?)
I am a patient of oncologist Dr. Ross Camidge, at Colorado University Cancer Center.
I have Stage IV lung cancer. I’ve taken a 12-week cycle of with gemzar and carboplatin. I remained stable, but had enough side effects that I did not wish to continue. I am now making a choice between two clinical trials:one is with tarceva and avastin, the other trial is with alimta and sorafineb, the study drug.
I lost my right lung to cancer 8 years ago, so I only have this one left. It has metastasised to some lymphnodes. We discovered it last summer because it caused one of my vocal cords to be paralyzed.
Are you interested in hearing of my progress?
Bob
January 16th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Absolutely, Bob. I’ll also say that both of those trials sound quite interesting and promising. Please do keep following along and add info as you can. Best to start a thread in the Discussion/Q&A Forum, where the postings are a bit easier to locate when you need them.
Good luck, Bob.
-Dr. West
January 16th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
” it’s a resource that apparently isn’t available everywhere” That’s a very true under statement. I read your posts and replys everyday. Thanks for taking the time to be with us caretakers and patients. It’s sad that some of the doctors we rely on to help us survive just don’t have time anymore to even answer questions. I hope you get your education grant to keep this site going and to make it a new standard for patient hope, care and information.
January 17th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Dr. West,
Just wanted to add my two cents and say that I hope you are able to get the support you need to continue this forum. I really like the way you take several studies and break them down so the results are understandable. The information in one of your posts would have led me to a different decision about one of my treatment regimens had I had access to it at the time. I know it must be very time consuming for you and I do appreciate your dedication.
Thanks, Myrtle
January 17th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Dr. West:
My family and myself are indebted to you for taking the time to set up this web site, as well as for answering all our questions.
My wife’s Oncologist, Surgeon and Radiation Specialist are really first rate and wonderful doctors. However, the nature of our meetings with them preclude us from hearing & discussing the latest trends in the treatment of lung cancer.
It also benefits us to hear second/different opinions on many of the issues that are critical for cancer patients.
Thanks a lot!
Carlos
January 20th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Dr. West
Your web site has been a great source of information for myself. I do hope you are able to get sponsors and continue your information to allof us that are affected. Thanks again
Paul