HemOnc.org: A Collaborative Online Knowledge Platform for Oncology Professionals

Abstract

Purpose: Cancer care involves extensive knowledge about numerous chemotherapy drugs and chemotherapy regimens. This information is constantly evolving, and there has been no freely available, comprehensive, centralized repository of chemotherapy information to date.

Methods: We created an online, freely accessible, ad-free, collaborative wiki of chemotherapy information entitled HemOnc.org to address the unmet need for a central repository of this information. This Web site was developed with wiki development software and is hosted on a cloud platform. Chemotherapy drug and regimen information (including regimen variants), as well as other information of interest to hematology/oncology professionals, is housed on the site in a fully referenced and standardized format. Accredited users are allowed to freely contribute information to the site.

Results: From its inception in November 2011, HemOnc.org has grown rapidly and most recently has detailed information on 383 drugs and 1,298 distinct chemotherapy regimens (not counting variants) in 92 disease subtypes. There are regularly more than 2,000 visitors per week from the United States and international locations. A user evaluation demonstrated that users find the site useful, usable, and recommendable.

Conclusion: HemOnc.org is now the largest free source of chemotherapy drug and regimen information and is widely used. Future enhancements, including more metadata about drugs and increasingly detailed efficacy and toxicity information, will continue to improve the value of the resource.

Figure 1.

A portion of the rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) regimen description for untreated follicular lymphoma. There are currently seven variants of this regimen for this context on HemOnc.org. Study design, efficacy, and toxicity information are shown directly above the regimen. All drug names are active links to the respective drug pages. The original reference is listed at the end of the regimen (references are listed in chronologic order), with links to the original article as well as the PubMed abstract page.

Figure 2.

(A) The number of chemotherapy regimens for which information is available on HemOnc.org (count does not include variants of the same regimen). Counts were sampled at 3-month intervals. (B) The number of drugs (antineoplastic and supportive) for which information is available on HemOnc.org. Counts were sampled at 3-month intervals.

Figure 3.

The number of visitors per month to HemOnc.org. The blue line represents the total number of visitors. The yellow, green, and brown lines represent the number of visitors per month who entered the site via search engines, directly entering the address in web browsers, and referral links from other sites, respectively.