With the new version of the discussion forum, there is a feature called “tagging” that is now supported. I just had these moved to the bottom of the screen on the discussion forum section because they took up a lot of the space at the top of the web page and pushed people’s actual comments low enough that you may need to scroll down to find them. I asked the web design tech guys who help me manage the site to help explain what tags are and why we want to have them. They’re still there at the bottom of the screen below the posts, as a “word cloud” or “tag cloud”, so let me try to explain what they are and why people may want to use them.
Tags are basically a way to manage information so that people can navigate more easily. I have set up the website to have information archived by subject, divided by cancer stage and treatment type and sometimes by special populations. My posts are often categorized in multiple subjects at once because the topics overlap. A post about treating advanced NSCLC in never-smokers with EGFR inhibitors would appropriately belong in categories about advanced NSCLC, never-smokers, and EGFR inhibitors/targeted therapies. I can do that, but people might want to note that a post or discussion topic also contained information about some other point of interest to them.
The search function works to find the appearance of any term you search for in the name or text of any post or discussion forum thread, but tagging allows for a sort of automated search. You, as members on the site, can add tags to any post by saying that the post includes relevant information about that subject. So you can add the term “rash” or “tarceva” to a thread about a tarceva-induced rash, or “pneumonitis” and “dysnpea” or “shortness of breath” to someone’s thread on lung symptoms following radiation. When tags are made, the most common ones are displayed disproportionately largely in the “tag cloud” at the bottom of the page. They look like this:
(click to enlarge) (this isn’t our content)
Basically, what it allows people to do is have an automatic, pre-made search for relevant content about a subject. It’s a feature that is becoming increasingly used on the newer websites (the tech guys helping me manage the site tell me how extremely hip tagging is). It also makes it easier for search engines to find relevant information if people are looking for it from places outside of this site (and we must help the unfortunate, less-informed people who haven’t found this site). If used by lots of people, it becomes a very useful tool in combination with regular filing by subject. On the other hand, if people don’t want it, we can scrap it.
I must admit that I’m just learning about this, but I think it will be helpful for everyone. I welcome your thoughts, and I welcome you to start tagging if you’re so inclined. Let’s see what people think of the idea.
posted by Dr. West @ 11:00 pm link to this post
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March 24th, 2007 at 7:57 am
Dear Dr. West
I finished my cisplatin/etoposide and Taxotere with radiation treatment on 3/8. I was getting a little shortness of breath right after the last Taxotere treatment. Since than I have had a a much worse problem to the point I can not function normally but must set down after any kinnd of exertion. They did a CT scan to check for clots but found only heavy inflamation around the tumor. They don’t know if this is due to radiation or Taxotere. I am on Steriods and Azithromycin. Can you give me an idea on how long this will go on or when I can expect some improvement. It is quite depressing to go through the treatments with no problems and than to have this happen. Thank you for your advise.
Paul
March 24th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Paul,
It generally improves over weeks to months, but not everyone has complete resolution. There may be some permanent scarring from the radiation. But the azithromycin would likely cover any infectious component, while steroids are used to minimize inflammation that may be caused by a post-radiation effect and possibly worsened by taxotere.
I hope you feel better soon. The treatment plan you underwent is a very challenging approach, but it’s favored by many oncologists because it has been associated with a very promising long-term survival in the studies testing it thus far. But it’s tough enough that it can’t be used for people with much lung function compromise or other medical problems because it’s so rigorous. It may not be any consolation, but your symptoms are quite common in this setting.
Finally, the comments after the posts are generally meant to be discussion related to the topic of the post. I am very happy to try to answer any questions, but if they’re unrelated to a post, just start a discussion thread in the Q+A/Forum section of the site and I’ll find it and respond.
No problem this time, but it’ll help for the future if we keep the large amount of information here organized as well as possible.
-Dr. West
March 24th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
This is a Reply about tags. I thought I could figure it out on my own since my career was in programming but the X-Generation over took me years ago.
I think I understand that imbedded software takes our words and terms from the Submitted Replys and adds them to your search engine to increase the amount of results from a Search session.
What more do we have to do in a Reply. Can we just add terms like Rash or Tarceva stand alone or should they be used in a sentence?
When would I ever see a window such as the one in your post?
A little more info please.
March 25th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I’m learning this myself, but basically,users can read a discussion thread and say “hey, this is a useful discussion about pleural effusions”, or cough, or whatever, and then the user can go to the open box at the top of the page next to “Add”, and you can write in “pleural effusion” or “cough” or “tarceva” or whatever useful topic the discussion is covering. Then someone can see the list of popular tags at the bottom of the discussion forum, notice that there’s one about Tarceva, for instance, and find everything that has been tagged as relevant about tarceva by users. More commonly tagged terms appear as bigger fonts.
I’ll check to see whether I or others can add tags to the posts and/or comments after posts.
-Dr. West