Does Cancer Treatment Centers Of America Own This Website?

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Under the "Who are we" section, it says Cancer Treatment Centers provides management help to the website. Not sure if that means they own it or not, but they are certainly involved in it.

Rick

On 2/23/2008 60year wrote:

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I have often wondered about this myself. I suspected this might be the case some months ago when certain websites or comments which were anti chemotherapy or negative to other traditional treatment were always either removed from my messages or else my messages always "timed out." I presumed then there was some bias here. Still, once I began questioning if censorship was taking place I received several messages from a moderator. To her credit, I must say once she was aware of the problem it was rectified within a few weeks. Perhaps there was a change in policy and if so I applaud whoever the sponsor is because there are other cancer support websites that absolutely forbid discussion of any treatments other than traditional and in doing so are preventing patients from making truly informed choices.

I dont think its bias.  The question for the website is this; are they liable for some poor advice someone gets on their site which turns out bad for the patient.  If someone wants to start their own blog or website and tell people to take roots and seaweed for their cancer thats fine, but its different if the site is sponsored or owned by a more mainstream medical establishment (ie: CTCA).  They can say they are not responsible, but I think its still a concern for them.

I've always viewed this board as a place for like people to lean on eachother for support and get advice as to ideas. When families go through something like cancer it is really nice to have shoulders and ears, even if it is in a format like this.  But I give people more credit than to just take suggestions from strangers on this board and run with them as if they are the miracle cure, discounting the professional advice recieved from their doctors face to face. Everyone has to understand that almost all of us are patients or caregivers. We are not medical profesionals. I have picked up on mnay tips that has helped me, I've also heard some bizzare things that you just discount as snake oil.

This board should never ever take the place of the advice given a particular patient for a particular ailement. If someone needs a shoulder to lean on, great. If someone needs some general advice like you'd give to your neighbor, then great. But nobody should ever say no to their doctor because some stranger on a board told them to. People are smarter then that.

Rick

This is a great website, and the great thing about it is you get information from patients and caregivers about what to expect, and what kinds of options you might have that you may not know about. I do not see how that would hold anyone liable for "internet malpractice" considering this is a community website. Furthermore, I recently asked CancerCompass about the members that appear as medical professionals, or Doctor/Nurse as the descriptor appears here, to see if they are on staff, verified as doctors and nurses with CancerCompass, or have some kind of guideline in which to follow when posting to this board. The answer was no to all the above. Perhaps this is because of liability issues, because if certified medical professionals are giving out guidance on this site and they are staff members, or verified by CancerCompass, then CTCA could be held liable for such medical advice.

Just a reminder: 

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS SERVICE IS NOT INTENDED NOR IMPLIED TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTH PROVIDER PRIOR TO STARTING ANY NEW TREATMENT OR WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING A MEDICAL CONDITION. NOTHING CONTAINED IN THE SERVICE IS INTENDED TO BE FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT OF ANY ILLNESS, CONDITION OR DISEASE.

The Service is presented by CancerCompass for the sole purpose of disseminating health information for public benefit. IT IS NOT INTENDED, AND MUST NOT BE TAKEN, TO BE THE PROVISION OR PRACTICE OF MEDICAL, NURSING, OR PROFESSIONAL HEALTH CARE ADVICE OR SERVICES IN ANY JURISDICTION. THE SERVICE IS NOT TARGETED TO USERS IN ANY PARTICULAR LOCALITY, NOR IS IT INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE THE DOING OF BUSINESS IN ANY JURISDICTION, NOR TO BE A SOLICITATION OF BUSINESS ANYWHERE ON BEHALF OF CTCA OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATED BUSINESSES, NOR TO CONSTITUTE ANY CONTACTS WITH ANY JURISDICTION OUTSIDE THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.