Completing a life: development of an interactive multimedia CD-ROM for patient and family education in end-of-life care.

There are relatively few comprehensive and empowering educational tools to assist people with terminal illness in addressing important end-of-life issues. Identifying this scarcity, a design team of health and multimedia professionals created an interactive, educational CD-ROM entitled Completing a Life. The primary goal of the project was to provide rich content in a style that was easy to access, understand, and use. The interactive medium of the CD-ROM enabled a large amount and wide array of material to be presented in manageable segments. These segments are connected by hyperlinks, providing self-guided control over the selection, pace, and order of material. The CD puts the learning experience in the hands of the learner. The format and design is also intended to generate a sense of empowerment, at a time and around issues often associated with a loss of control. Completing a Life covers a wide range of information for the user to choose from, spanning physical, emotional, family, and spiritual issues. A calm and comforting tone and welcoming environment enhances the users’ ability to take in the information and make proactive decisions about his/her own well-being and care. The CD contains video narratives of individuals who tell their own stories of living with terminal illness. In addition to being a highly relevant means of conveying sensitive, health-related information, this collection of personal interviews may offer a form of “virtual support group” for the user. Finally, the interactive format allows stories and informational content to be linked in topic-specific ways that complement one another.