We hope you find the site informative and would welcome your feedback, this helps us to ensure that we include all the information or topics that YOU want to know about. [feedback]
If you are a health professional, or are assessing the DIPEx resources for professional reasons, it may interest you to know that the DIPEx modules can also be supplied on DVD. This will allow you to access the information, video and audio without access to the Internet. Email DIPEx for details using our contact form
The DIPEx site is easy to use. The video and audio interviews use Windows Media Player, which will already be on most PC's. If you have trouble viewing the video go to Viewing video and audio in Technical Help.
Access keys:
Access keys can be used to jump to different sections of content on the DIPEx website, for a list of relevant keys, go to the accesskey page.
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DISCERN
DISCERN is a brief questionnaire which provides users and information providers with a valid and reliable way of assessing the quality of written information on treatment choices for a health problem. DISCERN acts as a guide to the standard which users are entitled to expect. Once the information has been evaluated it is graded and given a star rating. Star ratings range from 1-5, five being the highest.
DIPEx uses the DISCERN ratings to help provide links to quality information. Not all resources can be rated only those that give information on treatment choices, so you will find many useful and helpful organisations, support groups and information listed on the DIPEx website that have not been given a star rating.
The DISCERN Project is based in the University of Oxford, Division of Public Health and Primary Health Care, at the Institute of Health Sciences. For more information www.discern.org.uk
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Finding the Illness or Condition You Want to View:
The website is divided into separate areas for each illness or condition. To select the illness or condition you are interested in, select the group i.e. Cancers, then the specific cancer from the list i.e. testicular. From there you will be taken to the home page of that illness/condition.
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Moving between the different illnesses:
Click on the "Experiences" button on the top menu on each page.
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Navigation:
The frontpage of the site has a menu at the top of the page, which will take you to more information about DIPEx. To enter the experiences part of the site click on 'Experiences' from the top menu or use the accesskey "2".
The experience sections contain a top menu, which will allow you to move around the site, and a side menu that will allow you to move about the individual illness or condition that you have selected.
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Searching:
Quick Search:
You can find this on the right hand side of each page. This allows you to search all the illness/condition sites. Type in your search request, the fewer words the better and press Go.
Advanced Search:
On the right hand side underneath the Quick Search you will see a link to the Advanced Search.
This facility allows you to narrow your search criteria. You can search across all the sites or a partcular area. You can search for specific types of information such as interviews, information and Q & As and choose the number of results displayed on each page.
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Credits
Information on the researchers, advisory panel members and organisations who have funded and supported the site.
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Glossary
An A to Z index of keywords for each illness or condition. By selecting a key word such as Chemotherapy, a list of relevant interview clips, information and Q & As on that subject will be displayed.
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Individuals…
Here you will find interviews listed according to peoples age, gender or years since diagnosis. The interviews give you short clips from their individual stories.
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Information
This area provides accurate, reliable and detailed information for each illness or condition, e.g. What is Cancer? We work in partnership with other organisations (such as Cancerbackup/British Heart Foundation) to make sure all the information is up to date and reliable.
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Q & As
In this section we have many frequently asked questions, raised by people during the interviews and answered by experienced healthcare professionals.
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Resources
You can find many links to other organisations, support groups, publications and other relevant material for each illness. Where possible each resource has been rated and evaluated using the 'DISCERN' criteria.
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Talking About...
We have grouped the interviews to show people talking about…Signs and Symptoms, Treatments, Living with it etc. These summarise the different experiences and help you to find what you are looking for. Just select the summary you are interested in, this will list all the relevant interviews talking on this subject.
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The DIPEx website is best viewed on PC’s using Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP operating systems. You may experience some problems accessing some sections of the site on machines using Windows 95. Microsoft no longer supports Windows 95 and therefore does not provide versions of Windows Media Player 9 for this operating system. Windows Media Player 9 or above is needed to play the video and audio files on this site. For more information on Windows Media Player please visit www.microsoft.com
Browsers
The DIPEx site is compatible with Mozilla Version 1.3, Opera Version 7.1, Netscape Version 7, Firefox 1.x and Internet Explorer Version 5 and upwards. Should you not have these browsers currently installed, you can download them for free from www.netscape.com and www.microsoft.com.
If you wish to view the video and audio, you will achieve better perfomance if you access the DIPEx site over a broadband connection. This will increase the smoothness of video and audio playback.
The current site does not display well in Safari and we advise using an alternative browser. The DIPEx site is being redesigned and the new site will be available mid 2008, this site will be compatible with all current browsers.
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Mac users
The DIPEx site is best viewed using Internet Explorer Version 5 and above but it is also compatible with Mozilla Version 1.3, opera Version 7.1 , Netscape Version 7 and Firefox 1.x. Should you not have these browsers currently installed, you can download them for free from www.netscape.com and www.microsoft.com .
Mac users may experience some problems with accessing the video and audio on the site and will need to download a compatible media player. The video and audio files can be played through some third party applications such as RealPlayer http://uk.real.com/player/. The video and audio will also work with Windows Media Player 9 for Mac's, although this is no longer supported by Microsoft, free download can still be easily found on the web. The video and audio will not play through Quicktime as it does not support streamed media.
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Viewing video and audio
To view the video and audio files on the site you will need to have Windows Media Player 9 or above on your computer. If you do not have Windows Media Player 9 please follow the link to download.
If you wish to view the video and audio, you will achieve better performance if you access the DIPEx site over a broadband connection. This will increase the smoothness of video and audio playback.
Some computers have problems playing the video or audio files if popup blockers are switched on.
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Contact Us
Give us your feedback, volunteer to take part, other ways to help.
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Would you like to be interviewed about your own experiences of: Adults with leukemia, Parkinson's disease, Infertility problems, Osteoporosis, Clinical trials or Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS)?
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