Healthcare professionals face the challenge of successfully managing debilitating pain in patients with cancer. To meet this challenge, they must understand the nature and significance of cancer pain and the prevalence of inadequate management. In addition, they must gain adequate knowledge about available therapeutic resources. We propose to develop a software tool, TALARIA, which will provide this information in a particularly enabling fashion. TALARIA will provide just-in-time training and it will function as a comprehensive reference tool. Our goal is to build a virtual personal assistant for clinicians managing cancer pain. Federal clinical practice guidelines formally define much of the knowledge base for TALARIA although we will extend it in several directions. Our research will exploit new developments in multimedia, hypertext and educational technologies to make the tool effective, comprehensive and engaging. In particular, TALARIA will employ a travel metaphor, implemented with graphics, to provide intelligent guidance for the clinician. We will use stable software tools to develop TALARIA and we will disseminate it mainly via the World Wide Web on the Internet. We will formally evaluate TALARIA.
A software tool, functioning as an assistant to healthcare professionals managing cancer pain, would enjoy a large market. This market extends to teaching institutions, pain centers, hospices, nursing homes, and cancer centers. The technology we are developing could be applied to many other guidelines. The emerging information superhighway presents an exciting distribution channel for such products.
