Practice Guidelines--Cancer Risk Information Providers

The ultimate goal of this multi-phase research effort is to develop, implement and evaluate effective, evidence-based practice guidelines to assist the wide range of information providers who impart complex and sensitive information regarding the risk of heritable breast, ovarian and colon cancer (BOCC). Before these guidelines can be developed a comprehensive, systematic in-depth review of how risk information is currently disseminated and the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of those relating the information, must be conducted. This study (Phase II) is an in-depth functional geography (FG) analysis of 12 settings (6 U.S./6 Canada) where information regarding heritable BOCC risk information is disseminated. Informants will be interviewed by telephone using the Telephone Interview Guide (TIG), designed to assess their knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, practices and perceptions (KABPP) regarding the provision of heritable BOCC risk information. The results will provide a path diagrammatic FG schema of information provision settings; will provide data from which preliminary practice guidelines for information providers will be established; and will be used to convert the TIG into a self-administered questionnaire for use in an international mailed survey in Phase III. Results of this research will be critical to the development of informational practice guidelines, the formation of effective educational interventions for heritable BOCC risk providers, and the supplementation of the current studies of the effects of risk notification related to genetic testing and counseling for patients/clients and their families. (Member CGSC)