Many of these patients on the Listserv have not had good dealings with doctors and hospitals, so a search for facilities that have been useful to other cancer patients is helpful. Patient and caregivers have also created there own web page to focus on there particular disorder and suggestions and methods that have worked for them. Also, they may have links to other patients webpages. When one has there own website they can focus on the information they feel is important to them. However, when reviewing these web sites one must remember that these patients are not professionals and that everybody is different in the treatment they receive.
Web sites come in many types.
The ones important to caregivers of cancer patients are support, hospitals, doctors, personal, informative, specific cancer illnesses, and information on dying well. To locate the web sites that were useful to my discussion group , I used search engines such as netsearch, alsta vista, and yahoo. These URL addresses gave support to the cancer patients and their families as needed. Caregivers of cancer patients also share information on doctors and hospitals that have been useful in their treatment. While being a virtual community, the members share recommendations of others that have been useful to them.