We propose a low-cost commercial intelligent hypermedia information system to educate patients and the general public about breast cancer. User centered system design, focusing on seeing the domain from the patient's or potential patient's point of view, is central to our approach. The need for breast cancer education evident. About 182 thousand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the United States alone. Patients-and the general public-want information. Doctors and nurses are pressed for time, and for any number of reasons may not be able to provide all of the information an individual may want or need. One technological innovation in our proposal is the application of user- centered system design to a commercially available medical information system. A second is the use of cognitive models of patients' understanding and perceived information needs regarding breast cancer and its treatments to develop the deep structure of the interface between the medical model and the user.
