Dear Colleagues

This message is to announce the launch of UK Prostate Link, 
http://www.prostate-link.org.uk, a new national website which provides 
intelligent signposting to quality-assessed information about prostate 
cancer on the web.

Those of you who provide services to primary care or uro-oncological 
specialties may be particularly interested in this resource. The site 
contains a database of around 1,200 quality-assessed links to 
information for patients, their families, carers and health 
professionals. We've also included details of the assessment instrument, 
the literature review which preceded its formulation, and a means for 
information providers (the ones whose content we've assessed) to view a 
detailed breakdown of how their scores were derived.

The project has been funded by the Department of Health and a coalition 
of charities and professional bodies.

We would be very interested to hear your comments, and are particularly 
interested in hearing from people who can help us with the validation 
programme for the rating instrument.

At the end of this message I have appended the text of last week's press 
release announcing the site.

Many thanks

Douglas
-- 
Mr Douglas Badenoch
Director, Minervation Ltd
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7200 The Quorum, Oxford Business Park North,
Oxford, OX4 2JZ, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1865 487322
Fax: +44 (0)1865 481482

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PROSTATE CANCER INFORMATION MADE EASY BY UK PROSTATE LINK

Searching for relevant prostate cancer information on the internet is 
set to be made much easier and quicker by the launch this week of UK 
Prostate Link. The new site will provide a unique ‘intelligent 
signposting’ service to web-based information on every aspect of 
prostate cancer, with a ‘star rating’ system to guide users, based on 
reliability and ease of access.

UK Prostate Link, jointly funded by the Department of Health and members 
of an influential campaigning group of charities and professional 
organisations - the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action - breaks new 
ground in information provision. It is also a first in terms of 
collaboration, providing an independent point of access for those 
wanting to learn more about prostate cancer, the most common form of 
cancer in men.

Speaking at the launch of the second Prostate Cancer Charter for Action 
on Monday, 31st October at the House of Commons, Rosie Winterton, 
Minister of State for Health Services, said:

“I am pleased that another collaborative project, UK Prostate Link, will 
be officially launched at the National Prostate Conference on Thursday 
of this week. This is the first comprehensive online source of 
information of its kind, and will help prostate cancer patients, their 
families and health professionals to access the information they need 
about the disease.”

John Neate, Chairman of the UK Prostate Link Steering Group said:

“UK Prostate Link will be a unique, independent resource for men with 
prostate cancer and their families, health professionals and others 
involved in the fight against prostate cancer. We expect that UK 
Prostate Link will act as an independent catalyst for change, 
stimulating debate on how to improve the range and quality of 
information available to all those with a stake in tackling the disease.”

Douglas Badenoch, Director of Minervation, said:

“This website provides quality-rated links to information about prostate 
cancer on the internet. In the first phase of the project, we have rated 
nearly 1,200 pages of information on 46 different websites using our own 
appraisal instrument. Users can access the site by searching for key 
words, browsing by topic or following a particular user perspective. In 
addition, information providers can log on to the site to get detailed 
feedback on how their web pages were rated.”

UK Prostate Link has already received the backing of the Prime Minister, 
Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, who described it as a ‘vital resource’ in his 
contribution to the world’s first ever Audio Day Motion which encouraged 
Parliamentarians to speak out on prostate cancer.

NOTES TO EDITORS

The URL for UK Prostate Link - accessible from Thursday, 3rd November - 
is http://www.prostate-link.org.uk

Every year in the UK over 30,000 men are diagnosed with the disease and 
10,000 men die from it. Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer 
diagnosed in men in the UK - every hour at least one man dies from this 
disease.

The Prostate Cancer Charter for Action is the leading campaigning group 
on the disease. It is made up of 22 charities, patient groups and 
professional organisations with an interest in tackling the disease. The 
signatories are the British Association of Urological Nurses, British 
Association of Urological Surgeons, British Prostate Group, British 
Urological Foundation, British Uro-Oncology Group, Cambridge Cancer 
Research Fund, CancerBACUP, Cancer Research UK, Help the Aged, Institute 
of Cancer Research, Macmillan Cancer Relief, Men’s Health Forum, Men’s 
Health Forum Scotland, Orchid Cancer Appeal, Pro Cancer Research 
Foundation, PCaSO Prostate Cancer Network, Prostate Research Campaign 
UK, Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, Progress, Scottish Association 
of Prostate Cancer Support Groups, Tenovus and The Prostate Cancer Charity.

Professor Mike Richards, National Cancer Director, will be launching UK 
Prostate Link at the National Prostate Cancer Conference, ‘Forward 
Together: Getting the Best for Men,’ on Thursday, 3rd November at the 
Congress Centre, 28, Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LS.

Minervation is an independent knowledge management company based in 
Oxford. It builds web sites for health care organisations in the UK and 
across Europe, which range from small organisational sites to huge 
libraries of health care information.

CONTACTS

Mike Birtwistle
020 7340 6204
07977 907555
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Douglas Badenoch
01865 487323
07906 518298
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John Neate
020 8222 7622
07831 645509
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