About ACOR > Mission

Mission

ACOR is an Internet-based public charity dedicated to improve the quality of care provided to cancer patients and the quality of life of patients, survivors and their caregivers.

ACOR leverages its wide technological and biomedical resource expertise to be a reliable source of knowledge, support and community in a relentless worldwide campaign to empower those suffering from the disease.

ACOR achieves its mission by constantly investing in advanced technologies and improving them to:

• Provide uninterrupted open access to a large nexus of online peer support groups (Health eCommunities) it creates and manages,

• Host a number of exceptional patient-centered websites.
  
• Conduct breakthrough research.
  

These efforts are supported by a large team of dedicated volunteers and support staff. Thanks to them, ACOR is consistently recognized as a leader in helping cancer patients and in promoting health care quality through its Health eCommunities.

Principles

ACOR is committed to the following principles:

1. ACOR should provide free and unencumbered access to peers suffering from the same disease or treatment effects, to end the isolation suffered by many cancer patients, survivors & caregivers.
   
   
2. Informed patients and caregivers are better prepared to navigate the treatment options maze.
   
   
3. Cancer patients should have free access to accurate and timely information regarding their disease.
   
   
4. ACOR should promote universal access to the full complement of resources necessary to assess and implement treatment choices.
   
   
5. Equal access to information and support should be provided regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality or economic status.
   
   
6. All cancer patients, survivors and those who care for them should be assured that empowerment through knowledge enables the following elements of quality care:
   
   • Finding the appropriate specialists: recommendations about initial cancer management, which are critical in determining long-term outcome, are best made by experienced professionals.
   • Gaining a real understanding of the care plan offered by the clinical team: agreement between the patients and the professional providing health care is vital in cancer care.
   • Gaining informed access to high-quality clinical trials;
   • Receiving continual psychosocial support through a large number of easily accessible specific cancer eCommunities.
   
   
   
7. Widespread acceptance of the use of peer to peer (p2p) eCommunities is limited by the lack of robust evaluation of their efficacy. To increase understanding of their importance, ACOR is leading the development of secure online survey tools and their use to conduct rigorous research. ACOR seeks to improve the quality of online health research by promoting systematic development of ethical research design and methodology guidelines and putting them into practice. ACOR participates in groundbreaking collaborations with premier academic research organizations. ACOR advocates for the widest possible dissemination of:
   • Robust validated instruments for online research
   • Online research guidelines
   • Results of studies using only proven research methodologies.
   ACOR reserves the right to limit access to its p2p eCommunities only to research projects that promote and employ this rigorous philosophy.
   
   
8. ACOR does not, at present, have it's own institutional review board (IRB.) According, ACOR will partner with organizations whose IRBs understand and support the special needs of online researchers and cancer families.
   
   
9. Health eCommunities focused on a rare disease can become significant players in basic and clinical research by acting as the online information and recruitment center for all the projects related to the disease.