DIPeX - Database of Individual Patient Experiences

Web: www.dipex.org

Patient UK has its own interactive, fully integrated Patient Experience Forum where patients are able to express in their own words their experience of a medical condition, a medicine, a treatment, or a service.

The DIPeX website is similar in that it records patient experiences of disease within 'modules'.

Within each module they aim to:

• Identify the questions and problems that matter to people when they are ill or have a health-related problem.
• Share the experience of illness or a health problem and provide a reference point for patients and carers who may feel that they are on their own.
• Provide support and accessible evidence-based information to people diagnosed with a serious illness or looking for advice on a health problem.
• Answer the questions that are important to patients and help them make informed decisions about their healthcare.
• Be an educational resource for medical students and student nurses, and for postgraduate and in-service training.
• Promote effective communication between patients and health professionals and promote a more balanced encounter between patients and their health team.
• Provide a patient-centred perspective to researchers, managers and those who commission health services.

The website modules contain interviews with people about their own experiences of serious illness, important health problems or health related matters. The interviews are linked to reliable information about each illness or problem, eg 'What is Cancer' or 'Treatment Options', as well as including questions and answers that have been raised during the interviews.

For each module between 40 and 50 people, from all walks of life and from all over the UK, are interviewed and video recorded in their homes, to describe the widest practicable range of experiences. The interviews are analysed and organised into themes or topics (eg Diagnosis, Signs and Symptoms, Treatments) to help you easily find an experience similar to your own on the site.