ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a unique health communication research initiative sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI is authorized by the National Cancer Act of 1971 to not only generate new scientific knowledge about cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, but to communicate relevant new knowledge learned about cancer to health care consumers, providers, researchers, policymakers, and the American public in general. Health information is essential in health care and health promotion because it provides both direction and rationale for guiding strategic health behaviors, treatments, and decisions. The Digital Divide has been identified as a special problem in health care that can lead to significant disparities in care. Researchers at the Louisiana State University Medical School, in collaboration with the Mid- South regional Cancer Information Service office, developed an innovative multidimensional strategy to overcome the Digital Divide for low-literacy elderly senior center participants in Louisiana.
